So I read this madly speculative, mostly light historical fantasy novel that leads through a chapter of pure tragedy and then speeds back into its predominant hopeful whimsical tone: The Impermanence of Lilies by Daniel Yeo. (When I get a new laptop the Amazon link will go here.)
What can I say? Yeo has a wild imagination. He's done a lot of reading; he's scrambled the facts that ought to underlie an historical novel. It's so easy to look up those facts on Wikipedia that I suspect he scrambled them deliberately to establish that his central character is an Unreliable Narrator. At what point will you stop wondering "Is this supposed to be a novel about a real person in history?" and start wondering "Is this Unreliable Narrator going to unmask as a lunatic, or just end this preposterous tale as the frantically romantic young man he seems to be?" If you like speculative fiction, read it and find out...it's a new book, and Yeo deserves encouragement.
When Jee Leong Koh sent it to me for review, I sent back a review based on my notes on (1) the first incredulous reading and (2) a second, fascinated reading. It's bizarre, it's surreal, it's the pick-up line to end all pick-up lines. It leaves me wondering what Yeo will do next.
A bright, modest young man from Singapore (whose name is not Daniel Yeo) read The Impermanence of Lilies too, made some observations that have more of a "literary" (and Singaporean) tone, and proposed a mash-up of his notes and mine. I thought his name ought to appear in the by-line too. He demurred. A higher percentage of the words in the mash-up came from my longer review.
The resulting review is now live at https://singaporeunbound.org/blog/2020/4/15/titanic-singaporean-imagination .
It's mine, mostly, but it doesn't read like my voice. It doesn't read like an American voice. It has picked up a Singaporean accent. Well, why not, when the review is of a Singaporean book?
I can only compare the feeling of reading it to looking at a child, knowing it to be your own child, but seeing it, at times, as a miniature of its other parent.
Producing this little mental "baby" together with a man I've never met, while I've been mostly isolated in Virginia and he's been isolated in New York City, was fun; I'd do it again.
Thursday, May 14, 2020
Friday, May 8, 2020
Fellow Writers...
...you probably know that Hope Clark is a generous source of tips, leads, and references. But I was going through some e-mails I'd saved, deciding what needed to be printed and/or filed before Yahoo self-destructs, and I found this graphic with the invitation to gank it. Y'know, I think this web site is due for a simple graphic.
"
WE HAVE 2 NEWSLETTERS - THE FREEBIE and THE PAID SUBSCRIPTION . . .
Remember that FundsforWriters, this newsletter, is free. Send it to whomever you like and share it liberally. But if you are serious about writing income resources, and your time is limited, consider subscribing to TOTAL FundsforWriters. It comes out biweekly, with 70 contests, markets, grants, retreats, publishers, freelance gigs, magazines and more, It's huge, but it saves you a lot of time searching. It's $18.75 for a year, or 26 issues. To subscribe, simply go to www.paypal.me/chopeclark/18.75 . It will be sent to the email you used unless you specify otherwise.
NOTE TO THE WISE: Send a receipt for one of Hope's books and receive TOTAL for free.
(**and feel free to steal this graphic for your own site!)
"
Full disclosure: I receive no commissions from your use of Hope's Paypal link. If, however, you want to pay for the GORGEOUS Glyphosate Awareness Monthly Newsletter, which is also the trailer for a forthcoming *BOOK* about butterflies, please send those U.S. postal orders to P.O. Box 322 or, while Saloli the Message Squirrel is lurking in her virtual oak tree, you may e-mail Pris365@yahoo (which is no longer a working Paypal address) for current Paypal instructions.
And here's your Conservative Content for this week...My income is still outrageously, preposterously low. That's not changed. I'm still qualified to write a book about how it's even possible to survive on such a ridiculous, un-American income. You're still encouraged to help fund the things that have been on my personal wish list for years, like getting the older part of my home re-wired so I could have a refrigerator again. Most Americans would consider most of these things "essential, survival needs" enough to go into debt for them. I've been just waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more...not very happily waiting.
At the same time, I know a lot of other online writers out there are...very likely collecting more money than I am, if you count the dollars alone. But they're enjoying it less, because they're still accustomed to having and spending more; their expenses are higher; if they've gone onto one of those bank-managed payment plans people get sucked into in the cities these days, they may have ten times as much money flow into their bank accounts, have it sucked out again by all the (non-essential) expenses they've agreed to make automatic payments to, and have less money to take to the grocery store.
I owe my existence--let alone the fact that, most of the time, it is basically a pleasant existence, that most of the time I actually feel pretty cheerful--to being fiscally conservative. I don't spend money unnecessarily on myself or on my business. I don't think the United States government, or any individual State government, should spend money unnecessarily either. I think a lot of the people who are wailing about their reduced incomes, prospective unemployment, prospective business failures, etc., actually need to learn more about how they too can live on less money.
I do think we all need to help cushion the blow for these people--especially since far too many of them have children, yes, often more than one child per working parent.
They're being told, "Stay home and homeschool your children."
Many of them could and should have been doing that already, but (1) they've never planned or prepared to do it well, so they are predictably not doing it well; and (2) those top-down, one-size-fits-almost-none diktats don't work very well in a democracy.
They're not merely wailing, but screaming and howling. "Stay home and homeschool our children on what? The handouts the federal government is promising won't pay the rent on our flats for another month!"
(Survival tip: People who are either paying rent or living in flats aren't ready to have children.Yes, that means that if parents want to have time to enjoy being grandparents, they should help reduce the cost of real estate, generally, and also help pre-pay any thirty-year mortgages the younger generation may have had to sign.)
Online writing is a great way to earn money if you can keep your cost of living down to a level online writing will support, which definitely rules out expenses like having children. As an online writer you can afford a major disability if the monthly cost of whatever treatment or compensation or assistive devices it requires is less than, say, $50. You might be able to have a car if you could get somebody to pay specifically for driving it, e.g. by using it as a taxi or wrapping it in paid ads; otherwise, I think most full-time online writers get used to walking everywhere, because few of us can afford to live in cities that have bus service.
How can we help people make the transition from what mindful Americans have known for a long time was an unsustainable economic-bubble lifestyle (remember The Waste Makers?) to a more sustainable lifestyle? Not by bankrupting the federal government or the state government. We really need to be thinking about the fact that the twentieth century's economic boom floated an unsustainable amount of government on which we need to cut back drastically. We can't afford for people to make dependence on government handouts a lifestyle.
We need to get creative about ways to help people get through the Great Artificial Depression. That means that those of us who have food this week should be thinking about the people we know, how many of them have food this week, and what goods or services we can pay people for to ensure that they have food this week.
Real conservatives oppose handouts. Real conservatives don't allow their neighbors to "need" handouts.
I don't find much food that didn't grow in my own not-a-lawn that I can eat, these days, but since the not-a-lawn is not quite wet enough to grow rice I really like being able to buy some groceries at a store. I am also very fond of my one electric light, and of being able to type things into a computer at home. Those and property taxes are my cost of living. It's low. You should show appreciation of my talent and support for my work by all means, and the good news is that for a lot of people that won't rule out showing support for other deserving writers as well.
Not all people are or should try to be writers. Not all people are or should try to be online. When my income exceeds my cost of living...well, I've tried to save out a little to put into expanding the Internet Portal; before the virus panic I'd scraped out enough to look at another physical store site. I have, whenever possible, made time to buy a cup of overpriced coffee "to go" from the cafe that employs the mothers of the two adorably well behaved children. Somebody's paying me for what writing I can do with my drastically reduced online time, so I'm paying those women something, passing it on. If I were being paid more I might be able to pay other people to do more of what they do--things like driving, or replacing roofs, or rewiring houses. Or providing a phone and Internet connection to a physical store.
Readers who still have incomes should definitely support this web site but there are others you should consider supporting, too. I've tweeted about the Singapore Unbound site's fund for Asian-American artists and authors. Why is that site ethnically specific? When a web site exists to publish the work of authors and artists within that specific literary niche, in a Great Artificial Depression it becomes necessary for those publishers to try to make sure those authors' and artists' children eat regularly. Those of Amy Tan's fans who have gone on to discover an interest in modern Asian literature will want to help the young writers we've discovered, but that in no way implies that our support for the people who are desperately trying to become full-time online writers this summer needs to be ethnically specific. I don't happen to have been working with a site dedicated to introducing modern British, European, African, or Latin American writers to the U.S. market, but sites like that exist. Maybe you know a legitimate one of them that deserves support.
In an overcrowded world, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his 'need'" is about as de-motivating a thought as can be imagined. In an overcrowded world people who sit around "needing" are clearly seen not to need anything, to be in fact a waste of oxygen. But that doesn't mean we become selfish hoarders; the thought is "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."
The same principles that worked in the 1930s will work again, to keep people working without the monster corporations that needed to implode years ago, without the federal handouts they should never have been able to get, without the advertising and other organizational bloat...just doing something useful in their own neighorhoods.
Use money to encourage those who deserve it, Gentle Readers.
"
WE HAVE 2 NEWSLETTERS - THE FREEBIE and THE PAID SUBSCRIPTION . . . Remember that FundsforWriters, this newsletter, is free. Send it to whomever you like and share it liberally. But if you are serious about writing income resources, and your time is limited, consider subscribing to TOTAL FundsforWriters. It comes out biweekly, with 70 contests, markets, grants, retreats, publishers, freelance gigs, magazines and more, It's huge, but it saves you a lot of time searching. It's $18.75 for a year, or 26 issues. To subscribe, simply go to www.paypal.me/chopeclark/18.75 . It will be sent to the email you used unless you specify otherwise.
NOTE TO THE WISE: Send a receipt for one of Hope's books and receive TOTAL for free.
(**and feel free to steal this graphic for your own site!)
"
Full disclosure: I receive no commissions from your use of Hope's Paypal link. If, however, you want to pay for the GORGEOUS Glyphosate Awareness Monthly Newsletter, which is also the trailer for a forthcoming *BOOK* about butterflies, please send those U.S. postal orders to P.O. Box 322 or, while Saloli the Message Squirrel is lurking in her virtual oak tree, you may e-mail Pris365@yahoo (which is no longer a working Paypal address) for current Paypal instructions.
And here's your Conservative Content for this week...My income is still outrageously, preposterously low. That's not changed. I'm still qualified to write a book about how it's even possible to survive on such a ridiculous, un-American income. You're still encouraged to help fund the things that have been on my personal wish list for years, like getting the older part of my home re-wired so I could have a refrigerator again. Most Americans would consider most of these things "essential, survival needs" enough to go into debt for them. I've been just waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more...not very happily waiting.
At the same time, I know a lot of other online writers out there are...very likely collecting more money than I am, if you count the dollars alone. But they're enjoying it less, because they're still accustomed to having and spending more; their expenses are higher; if they've gone onto one of those bank-managed payment plans people get sucked into in the cities these days, they may have ten times as much money flow into their bank accounts, have it sucked out again by all the (non-essential) expenses they've agreed to make automatic payments to, and have less money to take to the grocery store.
I owe my existence--let alone the fact that, most of the time, it is basically a pleasant existence, that most of the time I actually feel pretty cheerful--to being fiscally conservative. I don't spend money unnecessarily on myself or on my business. I don't think the United States government, or any individual State government, should spend money unnecessarily either. I think a lot of the people who are wailing about their reduced incomes, prospective unemployment, prospective business failures, etc., actually need to learn more about how they too can live on less money.
I do think we all need to help cushion the blow for these people--especially since far too many of them have children, yes, often more than one child per working parent.
They're being told, "Stay home and homeschool your children."
Many of them could and should have been doing that already, but (1) they've never planned or prepared to do it well, so they are predictably not doing it well; and (2) those top-down, one-size-fits-almost-none diktats don't work very well in a democracy.
They're not merely wailing, but screaming and howling. "Stay home and homeschool our children on what? The handouts the federal government is promising won't pay the rent on our flats for another month!"
(Survival tip: People who are either paying rent or living in flats aren't ready to have children.Yes, that means that if parents want to have time to enjoy being grandparents, they should help reduce the cost of real estate, generally, and also help pre-pay any thirty-year mortgages the younger generation may have had to sign.)
Online writing is a great way to earn money if you can keep your cost of living down to a level online writing will support, which definitely rules out expenses like having children. As an online writer you can afford a major disability if the monthly cost of whatever treatment or compensation or assistive devices it requires is less than, say, $50. You might be able to have a car if you could get somebody to pay specifically for driving it, e.g. by using it as a taxi or wrapping it in paid ads; otherwise, I think most full-time online writers get used to walking everywhere, because few of us can afford to live in cities that have bus service.
How can we help people make the transition from what mindful Americans have known for a long time was an unsustainable economic-bubble lifestyle (remember The Waste Makers?) to a more sustainable lifestyle? Not by bankrupting the federal government or the state government. We really need to be thinking about the fact that the twentieth century's economic boom floated an unsustainable amount of government on which we need to cut back drastically. We can't afford for people to make dependence on government handouts a lifestyle.
We need to get creative about ways to help people get through the Great Artificial Depression. That means that those of us who have food this week should be thinking about the people we know, how many of them have food this week, and what goods or services we can pay people for to ensure that they have food this week.
Real conservatives oppose handouts. Real conservatives don't allow their neighbors to "need" handouts.
I don't find much food that didn't grow in my own not-a-lawn that I can eat, these days, but since the not-a-lawn is not quite wet enough to grow rice I really like being able to buy some groceries at a store. I am also very fond of my one electric light, and of being able to type things into a computer at home. Those and property taxes are my cost of living. It's low. You should show appreciation of my talent and support for my work by all means, and the good news is that for a lot of people that won't rule out showing support for other deserving writers as well.
Not all people are or should try to be writers. Not all people are or should try to be online. When my income exceeds my cost of living...well, I've tried to save out a little to put into expanding the Internet Portal; before the virus panic I'd scraped out enough to look at another physical store site. I have, whenever possible, made time to buy a cup of overpriced coffee "to go" from the cafe that employs the mothers of the two adorably well behaved children. Somebody's paying me for what writing I can do with my drastically reduced online time, so I'm paying those women something, passing it on. If I were being paid more I might be able to pay other people to do more of what they do--things like driving, or replacing roofs, or rewiring houses. Or providing a phone and Internet connection to a physical store.
Readers who still have incomes should definitely support this web site but there are others you should consider supporting, too. I've tweeted about the Singapore Unbound site's fund for Asian-American artists and authors. Why is that site ethnically specific? When a web site exists to publish the work of authors and artists within that specific literary niche, in a Great Artificial Depression it becomes necessary for those publishers to try to make sure those authors' and artists' children eat regularly. Those of Amy Tan's fans who have gone on to discover an interest in modern Asian literature will want to help the young writers we've discovered, but that in no way implies that our support for the people who are desperately trying to become full-time online writers this summer needs to be ethnically specific. I don't happen to have been working with a site dedicated to introducing modern British, European, African, or Latin American writers to the U.S. market, but sites like that exist. Maybe you know a legitimate one of them that deserves support.
In an overcrowded world, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his 'need'" is about as de-motivating a thought as can be imagined. In an overcrowded world people who sit around "needing" are clearly seen not to need anything, to be in fact a waste of oxygen. But that doesn't mean we become selfish hoarders; the thought is "From each according to his ability, to each according to his work."
The same principles that worked in the 1930s will work again, to keep people working without the monster corporations that needed to implode years ago, without the federal handouts they should never have been able to get, without the advertising and other organizational bloat...just doing something useful in their own neighorhoods.
Use money to encourage those who deserve it, Gentle Readers.
Friday, May 1, 2020
Jeffrey Smith to Bayer/Monsanto, with Video Link
For our "conservative" readership who may think, "Salsa Labs projects generally range from 'liberal' to 'total left-wingnut,' such that that alone should discredit the Institute for Responsible Technology"...what can I say? The pieces fit. Gene splicing, rightly though right-wingers distrust it, and hubristic though I agree that it is, did not make me or my cats sick at first; BT corn's actual ecological effect was to breed hardier caterpillars. Glyphosate, and E. Coli corn (and soy) engineered to soak up glyphosate, and also fruits, vegetables, nuts, and grains that had glyphosate sprayed directly on the "food" to make mechanical harvesting easier, did make me sick. These abominations, which came on the market in 2009 so cannot be blamed on the Trump Administration, have been harming almost everyone this web site knows, albeit in different ways. There is no politics about the scientific facts:
Glyphosate is not a "safe pesticide." There are no "safe pesticides," and glyphosate harms every living thing whether it has two, four, six, eight, or no legs...in a bewildering variety of ways that remain remarkably constant across species.
GLYPHOSATE IS WORSE THAN CORONAVIRUS--slower, more painful, but no less deadly!
Trump's indulgence toward Bayer does show personal economic involvement...not with Bayer so much as with a smaller chemical company that also sells a glyphosate-based "herbicide" formula. While the focus has been on Bayer because that corporation is so huge and so rich, and so knowingly bought the responsibility for so much corporate irresponsibility, fear it not, Sanofi, and Syngenta, and Dow and Dupont and all the others out there...Glyphosate will destroy all who touch it. If corporations do manage to evade responsibility for the harm it's done under due legal process, they will literally call out all the powers of H...(I am not talking about a tourist town in Michigan, here.) Blood-throwing worked for the homosexual lobby and, if we have to stoop to that, glyphosate victims have plenty of ammunition.
Glyphosate Awareness has observed that politicians on both sides have been equally useless. The closest thing we have to elected officials who are willing to stand up to Bayer have been Bernie Sanders, who won an election in California on personal charm but would be too old to be a viable presidential candidate even if his ideas weren't outdated, and Robert F. Kennedy (junior), who deserves to be elected on the basis of his righteous work but has, so far, merely been appointed. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, nor Libertarians, nor even Greens, have climbed out of the beds Bayer has smeared with its (multiple) loathsome diseases. But please, Gentle Readers--the handful of you who are still finding chances to read things online while your schools and offices are closed for quarantine--share this friendly notice with any elected officials you know: Glyphosate can destroy their careers too. They need to reject it and denounce it now. If they have invested in companies that were raking in profits from glyphosate (or other poisons), they need to use their stockholder leverage to steer those companies as far from glyphosate (and from the whole concept of spraying "herbicides") as it's possible to get.
Jeffrey Smith is a political lifeform like all the rest of us, but there's no partisan politics about the press release he's shared this morning. It's facts. So this web site is sharing it, and we'll even try to throw in a link to his video. (Some of you may have watched his full-length documentary movie...the video is shorter.)
"
This link should take you to the video.
Glyphosate is not a "safe pesticide." There are no "safe pesticides," and glyphosate harms every living thing whether it has two, four, six, eight, or no legs...in a bewildering variety of ways that remain remarkably constant across species.
GLYPHOSATE IS WORSE THAN CORONAVIRUS--slower, more painful, but no less deadly!
Trump's indulgence toward Bayer does show personal economic involvement...not with Bayer so much as with a smaller chemical company that also sells a glyphosate-based "herbicide" formula. While the focus has been on Bayer because that corporation is so huge and so rich, and so knowingly bought the responsibility for so much corporate irresponsibility, fear it not, Sanofi, and Syngenta, and Dow and Dupont and all the others out there...Glyphosate will destroy all who touch it. If corporations do manage to evade responsibility for the harm it's done under due legal process, they will literally call out all the powers of H...(I am not talking about a tourist town in Michigan, here.) Blood-throwing worked for the homosexual lobby and, if we have to stoop to that, glyphosate victims have plenty of ammunition.
Glyphosate Awareness has observed that politicians on both sides have been equally useless. The closest thing we have to elected officials who are willing to stand up to Bayer have been Bernie Sanders, who won an election in California on personal charm but would be too old to be a viable presidential candidate even if his ideas weren't outdated, and Robert F. Kennedy (junior), who deserves to be elected on the basis of his righteous work but has, so far, merely been appointed. Neither Democrats nor Republicans, nor Libertarians, nor even Greens, have climbed out of the beds Bayer has smeared with its (multiple) loathsome diseases. But please, Gentle Readers--the handful of you who are still finding chances to read things online while your schools and offices are closed for quarantine--share this friendly notice with any elected officials you know: Glyphosate can destroy their careers too. They need to reject it and denounce it now. If they have invested in companies that were raking in profits from glyphosate (or other poisons), they need to use their stockholder leverage to steer those companies as far from glyphosate (and from the whole concept of spraying "herbicides") as it's possible to get.
Jeffrey Smith is a political lifeform like all the rest of us, but there's no partisan politics about the press release he's shared this morning. It's facts. So this web site is sharing it, and we'll even try to throw in a link to his video. (Some of you may have watched his full-length documentary movie...the video is shorter.)
"
Press Release
Bayer Ignores Investigator’s Warning at AGM:
“Change Course or Face Possible Bankruptcy”
Bonn, Germany, 29 April— For Bayer’s Annual General Meeting yesterday, Monsanto investigator Jeffrey Smith
predicted that Bayer will face possible bankruptcy from a new wave of
lawsuits linking Roundup herbicide to numerous diseases, and that the
current expected payout of up to $12 billion to more than 50,000
plaintiffs with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) is only the beginning. In questions submitted at Bayer’s AGM and elaborated in a short video and online presentations, Smith, the founder of the Institute for Responsible Technology, said Roundup is now implicated in several other cancers and more than 2 dozen diseases.
“The total number of people suffering from these conditions is
staggering,” wrote Smith, “thousands of times more than those currently
represented. If even a tiny percentage were to receive a settlement, the
award could easily bankrupt Bayer.”
In
2019, Bayer shareholders gave their leadership an unprecedented Vote of
No Confidence due to its ill-fated purchase of Monsanto, the maker of
Roundup. Massive jury awards in just three trials by four plaintiffs had
previously caused Bayer’s stock price to plummet by more than 35% and
forced its chairman to step down yesterday. Smith, who has been exposing
Monsanto’s dark side in books, movies, and presentations in 45
countries for 24 years, had written an open letter
to Bayer investors in 2016, urging them to not to purchase Monsanto. He
accurately listed Roundup’s classification as a “Probable Human
Carcinogen” as one of the significant liabilities that could hurt Bayer.
At
this week’s online side event organized by Coordination against
BAYER-Dangers (CBG), Smith explained research that demonstrates how
Roundup damages several physiological systems and can therefore cause or
exacerbate numerous chronic conditions. In his AGM submittal, he
described the threat and outlined a way forward that could protect the
company and the public. If the AGM were held in-person, Smith would have
been given time to read his statement and could have alerted
shareholders to the new dangers. But for this year’s online conference,
Bayer received and edited written submissions. They chose not to share
Smith’s prediction or proposed way forward. Bayer did restate their
claim that Roundup is not harmful.
Bayer Can Take Steps to Protect from Bankruptcy
Based on his analysis of the Roundup trials, which included hours of interviews
with attorneys and jurors, Smith says “Two categories of evidence drove
the juries’ judgements and large punitive awards, Monsanto’s malicious
behavior and the weight of the science. Unless Bayer addresses both,
they will continue to lose.”
1. Full Disclosure Required
In
his AGM submittal, Smith wrote: “Monsanto’s history was fraught with
coverups, bullying, lies, and manipulation. . . Juries were furious with
Monsanto’s behavior, and with Bayer for keeping the evidence hidden.”
To remedy this, he asked Bayer directors, “Are you willing to make public all evidence on Roundup and Monsanto’s bad behavior,
including every internal study and related document on safety, and
every instance where Monsanto manipulated, colluded, attacked, and
covered up? By exposing and condemning Monsanto’s prior behaviors, you
will distance yourself and claim the higher ground.”
2. Independent Research, Not Corporate Fraud
Smith wrote, “The science presented on behalf of Monsanto was thin and superficial at best, and more often fraudulent.
Juries were angry at Monsanto for not doing the meaningful tests that
could demonstrate safety and protect consumers. At the same time, jurors
were given ample data from independent studies verifying the link to
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
Although
Smith believes there is now ample evidence to remove Roundup from the
market, he says that if the company refuses to do so, Bayer should
“fully fund independent comprehensive intergenerational studies on the
full Roundup formulation, looking for links to disease?” He said in his
submission, “If the studies shows safety, then you have the data to fend
off lawsuits. If the studies show otherwise, you must immediately
remove Roundup.”
Bayer did not share these statements and questions with investors.
Smith
says, “We hoped that Bayer would finally become the responsible
corporate citizen it claims to be, but instead it has chosen to continue
in the tradition of Monsanto. Bayer ignores science, hides evidence
from its shareholders and the public, and continues to expose the
population to its very dangerous herbicide Roundup.”
"This link should take you to the video.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Glyphosate Awareness Newsletter 0420: The Rest of the Facts
This month's Glyphosate Awareness Newsletter began with pretty nature pictures of jewel-colored damselflies. (Scroll down to see that section here.) Here's the rest of it:
2. CANCER STUDIES LIST
Thanks to James @ethalises for posting
this list of glyphosate cancer studies on Twitter:
English: “2018: G. Andreotti et al.
found 100% increase of myeloid leukemia in farmers exposed to glyphosate. 2019:
M. Leon et al. found 36 percent increase in large B-cell lymphoma...L. Zhang et
al. found 40% increase in non-Hodgkins lymphoma.” Credits to scientific
journals not translated.
3. MEANWHILE BAYER TRIES TO SHORTCHANGE
CANCER PATIENTS
If your browser can handle Bloomberg,
you can find the full articles. Bayer blames the coronavirus, first for
stalling on offering payments to cancer patients, then for scanting.
“Bayer Effort to Settle Roundup Cancer Cases
Slowed by Covid-19 – Bloomberg ”
Here’s the latest list of brands to
boycott. These dastards don’t deserve a penny of your money!
4. INSTITUTE FOR RESPONSIBLE TECHNOLOGY
OFFERS UNPRECEDENTEDLY WEAK PETITION
Why is this petition still only 2% of
the way to its goal? Possibly because it’s so feeble. “Follow the lead of
Kellogg’s and commit to phasing out the
use of glyphosate as a desiccant”? Kellogg’s wants to keep selling you cereals
and granola bars that have had glyphosate sprayed right on the fruits, nuts,
and grain, right before they were picked and baked...and advertising this
poison as gluten-free and full of vitamins! We need to tell farmers to certify
their crops spray-free, this summer, before
we’ll handle their alleged “food”—much less eat any. Here’s the petition, if
you want to sign it, but...personally, I want farmers and food packers to go waaay beyond Kellogg’s puny non-solution.
I want to know that this year’s corn
is fit for human consumption. Otherwise, since I don’t enjoy being sick, I’ll
just have to live through another year without touching any corn. Or tomatoes.
Or apples. Or beans. Or anything else that’s not CERTIFIED GLYPHOSATE-FREE.
https://responsibletechnology.salsalabs.org/demandtheendofroundupasadryingagentoncrop/index.html
5. WHY SOY IS BAD
It’s not that soybeans, which are
nutritious food for humans and animals and even good for the soil, is even
causing most of the “soy allergy” reactions and various non-fun facts gathered
by those who’ve begun to wonder whether “unfermented” soy products are even
safe for humans to eat. Soybeans do contain phytoestrogens but they weren’t a
problem before glyphosate. And the EPA recently allowed use of another poison
on genetically modified soybeans...
If you’re gluten-free, you should not need to be soy-free as
well...but, currently, you do. Again, the EPA is not helping. It’s up to food
shoppers to tell food packers: “If you use soy products, make sure they’re
certified and tested 100% GMO and glyphosate-free, unsprayed, and organically
grown...Or you can just sit on sacks of
them until the Judgment Day!” Big Government is proving to be a Big
Boondoggle, but if farmers learn that they can’t sell poisoned “food,” they will stop spraying.
6. GLYPHOSATE CONTAMINATION MAPPED
No points for guessing: Places with a
lot of soy and corn fields (or tacky, outdated, Astroturf-looking “lawns”) are
places with a lot of glyphosate contamination. Though this Australian
Broadcasting news story tries too hard to be nice to the sprayers, it’s worth
reading for the sound bite at the end:
"Once
you detect the weed you can electrocute it, steam it, or pull it out, so there
are other ways of dealing with this problem."
7. HOW GLYPHOSATE HARMS OR KILLS FETAL ANIMALS
(OR HUMANS)
Many thanks to @KlausRiede for this...sneak
preview. The article’s not actually been published yet in the June 2020
journal, but you can see the summary of how Yahfoufi et al. found that
glyphosate interferes with the use of zinc and oxygen in fetal mice:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0300483X20301050
Mark Warner's Prompt Reply on Coronavirus Quarantine
While I suspect its promptness indicates that it's a form letter pasted into a lot of e-mails, that means a lot of people need to see it. Here is Senator Warner's prompt, courteous, and helpful reply to my comments on yesterday's e-mail, posted below this post on this web site. From U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA):
"
Dear Ms. King,
Thank you for contacting me about the Commonwealth of Virginia’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order.
On March 30th, Governor Northam issued a state-wide Stay-at-Home order to stop the spread of the coronavirus and to ensure the health of all Virginians. This order instructs all individuals in Virginia to remain at their place of residence, except for activities deemed essential. A list of essential activities and the Executive Order can be found at: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/executive-actions/EO-55-Temporary-Stay-at-Home-Order-Due-to-Novel-Coronavirus-(COVID-19).pdf
While drastic measures are necessary to slow the spread of this virus, I understand that these measures have come at tremendous economic and social cost. I will continue to fight to ensure that every Virginian has the resources they need to make it through this emergency.
Returning to normal will require careful consideration and targeted policies to meet the specific needs of Virginia’s diverse regions. The hard truth is, lifting these measures in any part of Virginia before public health officials recommend doing so would cause irreparable damage to both the public health of the Commonwealth and its economy. Consequently, we must work together and follow public health guidelines to make sure that, when we’re ready, Virginia can get back to business responsibly.
I appreciate hearing from you, and if you are in need of personal assistance related to the coronavirus, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my website at: https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/helpwithfederalagencies . If you are unable to send information to me online please contact my office by phone at: (202) 224-2023.
For the latest updates on this evolving situation and additional resources for Virginians, please visit my website at: https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=a-message-from-senator-mark-r-warner-on-the-coronavirus-outbreak .
This is a challenge unlike any we have faced in recent memory, but I believe that we as a country can and will get through this together.
Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator
"
Editorial comment: He's absolutely right about the risk of irreparable damage--from coronavirus, and from ordinary colds, flu, streppy-bugs and so on--because we are losing the Greatest Generation, and they'll be enough of a loss if they die out gradually rather than all at once; scroll further down this page, or click on https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-stay-healthy-without-lockdown.html , for some fact-based-not-politically-based thoughts on protecting those who really are at risk for coronavirus.
I appreciate people maintaining a good healthy distance, playing non-contact sports, and covering their own faces if they're especially concerned about their own risk. I think we should keep that up when we go back to work. It's not only the Greatest Generation who benefit from keeping a healthy distance between people. Nobody, including themselves, anticipates how much harm some teenagers do to themselves and their friends when they think they're over a cold and can resume playing basketball, dancing, etc., and they actually have mononucleosis.
But I want to repeat, here and elsewhere...most active and healthy people who've had the coronavirus describe it as much less of an inconvenience than the reactions many of us have every time the Southern Railroad Company sprays glyphosate along the railroad. In addition to my own personal pain, cramps, bleeding, etc., which I've been tracking and observing for enough years to recognize that the number and intensity of my symptoms has depended on how much vapor drift wind and rain conditions have allowed, I'm now also aware of the seemingly different, seemingly coincidental way every living thing around me seems to be suffering--or dying!--at the same times I'm being made sick. I now know it's not a coincidence when puddles of blood-flecked froth that have spewed out of people or animals, or rags that have been used to wipe the froth off people, appear on the road at the same time I'm flushing blood down the toilet. This week, once again, my neighborhood has been deliberately poisoned. As so many times before. I'd like to see our Governor issue some orders to protect people from that.
And I also want to urge our Senators to stand firm against the radical, half-grown and/or crowd-crazed urban wingnuts in their party who want to use the coronavirus panic to destroy more small businesses, put more people out of their homes, and get more formerly honorable Virginians into the welfare trap.
While neither of our U.S. Senators has ever really represented me, past ones who were Republicans didn't either, and I wouldn't call the ones who were Democrats wingnuts. It's that little peril from New York City, the one who could have been a model if she hadn't kept her original teeth...I can understand why men feel uninclined to argue with her, whether they see her as a daughter-substitute or simply as hot stuff. She's not really representing the interests of either young people or multiracial people or even New Yorkers, but she claims to be. She lays that "bigot" guilt trip on any older, paler-skinned, or male person who doesn't blindly follow every word she says--and frankly, I don't care if she wants to call me an ageist because I know I'm not: most of her ideas are very bad. Our whole Congress need to listen to the young working people in their own districts who want to keep their jobs, homes, and businesses, rather than to anyone who's silly enough not to recognize that one "stimulus" handout program has already been more than we needed.
We need to focus on steady reduction of all federal handout programs, on reducing the number of people who receive any kind of public assistance every year until
(a) it's possible to deliver emergency relief payments to all survivors of personal emergencies, such as injuries, floods, fires, during the month after the emergency; and
(b) it's possible for all able-bodied people to get by without handouts after that month.
I would like to see reduction of the number of people receiving any form of public assistance become a criterion in every elected official's campaign for reelection...and likewise in the relevant government employees' consideration for pay increases, promotions, or continuation of employment.
The young woman who sold me coffee (to go) this morning may not be as sophisticated as Lady Ravenwaves from New York; she has ordinary brown hair rather than jet-black, but she's cute too, Senator, and she has a vote for you. You need to represent her interests over AOC from NYC's.
"
Dear Ms. King,
Thank you for contacting me about the Commonwealth of Virginia’s response to the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Governor’s Stay-at-Home Order.
On March 30th, Governor Northam issued a state-wide Stay-at-Home order to stop the spread of the coronavirus and to ensure the health of all Virginians. This order instructs all individuals in Virginia to remain at their place of residence, except for activities deemed essential. A list of essential activities and the Executive Order can be found at: https://www.governor.virginia.gov/media/governorvirginiagov/executive-actions/EO-55-Temporary-Stay-at-Home-Order-Due-to-Novel-Coronavirus-(COVID-19).pdf
While drastic measures are necessary to slow the spread of this virus, I understand that these measures have come at tremendous economic and social cost. I will continue to fight to ensure that every Virginian has the resources they need to make it through this emergency.
Returning to normal will require careful consideration and targeted policies to meet the specific needs of Virginia’s diverse regions. The hard truth is, lifting these measures in any part of Virginia before public health officials recommend doing so would cause irreparable damage to both the public health of the Commonwealth and its economy. Consequently, we must work together and follow public health guidelines to make sure that, when we’re ready, Virginia can get back to business responsibly.
I appreciate hearing from you, and if you are in need of personal assistance related to the coronavirus, please don’t hesitate to contact me through my website at: https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/helpwithfederalagencies . If you are unable to send information to me online please contact my office by phone at: (202) 224-2023.
For the latest updates on this evolving situation and additional resources for Virginians, please visit my website at: https://www.warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=a-message-from-senator-mark-r-warner-on-the-coronavirus-outbreak .
This is a challenge unlike any we have faced in recent memory, but I believe that we as a country can and will get through this together.
Sincerely,
MARK R. WARNER
United States Senator
"Editorial comment: He's absolutely right about the risk of irreparable damage--from coronavirus, and from ordinary colds, flu, streppy-bugs and so on--because we are losing the Greatest Generation, and they'll be enough of a loss if they die out gradually rather than all at once; scroll further down this page, or click on https://priscillaking.blogspot.com/2020/04/how-to-stay-healthy-without-lockdown.html , for some fact-based-not-politically-based thoughts on protecting those who really are at risk for coronavirus.
I appreciate people maintaining a good healthy distance, playing non-contact sports, and covering their own faces if they're especially concerned about their own risk. I think we should keep that up when we go back to work. It's not only the Greatest Generation who benefit from keeping a healthy distance between people. Nobody, including themselves, anticipates how much harm some teenagers do to themselves and their friends when they think they're over a cold and can resume playing basketball, dancing, etc., and they actually have mononucleosis.
But I want to repeat, here and elsewhere...most active and healthy people who've had the coronavirus describe it as much less of an inconvenience than the reactions many of us have every time the Southern Railroad Company sprays glyphosate along the railroad. In addition to my own personal pain, cramps, bleeding, etc., which I've been tracking and observing for enough years to recognize that the number and intensity of my symptoms has depended on how much vapor drift wind and rain conditions have allowed, I'm now also aware of the seemingly different, seemingly coincidental way every living thing around me seems to be suffering--or dying!--at the same times I'm being made sick. I now know it's not a coincidence when puddles of blood-flecked froth that have spewed out of people or animals, or rags that have been used to wipe the froth off people, appear on the road at the same time I'm flushing blood down the toilet. This week, once again, my neighborhood has been deliberately poisoned. As so many times before. I'd like to see our Governor issue some orders to protect people from that.
And I also want to urge our Senators to stand firm against the radical, half-grown and/or crowd-crazed urban wingnuts in their party who want to use the coronavirus panic to destroy more small businesses, put more people out of their homes, and get more formerly honorable Virginians into the welfare trap.
While neither of our U.S. Senators has ever really represented me, past ones who were Republicans didn't either, and I wouldn't call the ones who were Democrats wingnuts. It's that little peril from New York City, the one who could have been a model if she hadn't kept her original teeth...I can understand why men feel uninclined to argue with her, whether they see her as a daughter-substitute or simply as hot stuff. She's not really representing the interests of either young people or multiracial people or even New Yorkers, but she claims to be. She lays that "bigot" guilt trip on any older, paler-skinned, or male person who doesn't blindly follow every word she says--and frankly, I don't care if she wants to call me an ageist because I know I'm not: most of her ideas are very bad. Our whole Congress need to listen to the young working people in their own districts who want to keep their jobs, homes, and businesses, rather than to anyone who's silly enough not to recognize that one "stimulus" handout program has already been more than we needed.
We need to focus on steady reduction of all federal handout programs, on reducing the number of people who receive any kind of public assistance every year until
(a) it's possible to deliver emergency relief payments to all survivors of personal emergencies, such as injuries, floods, fires, during the month after the emergency; and
(b) it's possible for all able-bodied people to get by without handouts after that month.
I would like to see reduction of the number of people receiving any form of public assistance become a criterion in every elected official's campaign for reelection...and likewise in the relevant government employees' consideration for pay increases, promotions, or continuation of employment.
The young woman who sold me coffee (to go) this morning may not be as sophisticated as Lady Ravenwaves from New York; she has ordinary brown hair rather than jet-black, but she's cute too, Senator, and she has a vote for you. You need to represent her interests over AOC from NYC's.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Mark Warner and "Paycheck Security"
From U.S. Senator Mark Warner, D-VA, and I'm afraid he's been listening to some hotheads in his party this week...
"
Dear Friend,
I’m writing to update you on the recent steps I’ve been taking as we respond to the coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, President Trump signed into law the latest coronavirus response legislation , which replenishes funds for several Small Business Administration (SBA) coronavirus relief programs that had run out of money. This bill was the result of bipartisan negotiations, and I’m proud that we were able to secure significant new resources for Virginia small businesses, as well as for additional coronavirus testing and for our hospitals and healthcare workers.
While I am glad funds are once again flowing to small businesses and workers through programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the truth is these programs are still not fully being administered as Congress intended them. From tech problems with the application process, to loans going to big companies who have no business applying for these loans, there are significant problems that I am working to address, so we can get these resources to small businesses and their workers who need them most.
As we work through these challenges, my office stands ready to assist however we can. Below you will find resource guides my office has prepared to answer many of the frequently asked questions about federal coronavirus resources, as well as helpful links to apply for assistance and track your coronavirus stimulus check. If you or a loved one is experiencing an issue with the federal government and can’t find the information you need below, I encourage you to contact my office immediately .
Going forward, I am working to make sure that we provide help to
folks who are struggling due to the coronavirus outbreak. Our first goal
must be to prevent further job losses, as well as permanent disruptions
like business closures, evictions, and foreclosures. Second, we must
work quickly to reduce the economic uncertainty facing workers and small
businesses. To do this, I have proposed a national paycheck security program
that would guarantee the paycheck of every rank-and-file American
worker, and I am hopeful that this proposal will be included in the next
coronavirus response bill later this spring.
I am also pushing for greater oversight , so that the funds we’ve already spent go to small businesses and their workers. We also need to get to the bottom of the shortages of personal protective equipment and coronavirus testing that are seriously hampering our efforts to defeat this virus. The Senate will be in session next week, and I think we ought to immediately hold oversight hearings to make sure the administration is following through on the new coronavirus response laws as Congress intended.
If you want to share your thoughts about an issue that’s important to you, you can send me an email any time using the form on my Senate website. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter . I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
"
Official editorial response: "Paycheck security"? What's that supposed to mean? Is that that guaranteed-income-whether-people-work-or-not blather that any adult knows cannnot possibly work? Please, Senator, I know she's cute, but you must not take anything AOC says seriously. That child still believes in a Socialist Santa Claus. Let's start with getting people back to work, so those who are earning enough to have tax withheld from their wages can replenish the funds to pay those "stimulus" handouts to those of us who weren't eating every single day on what we were earning when we were allowed to sell books.
"
Dear Friend,
I’m writing to update you on the recent steps I’ve been taking as we respond to the coronavirus outbreak. On Friday, President Trump signed into law the latest coronavirus response legislation , which replenishes funds for several Small Business Administration (SBA) coronavirus relief programs that had run out of money. This bill was the result of bipartisan negotiations, and I’m proud that we were able to secure significant new resources for Virginia small businesses, as well as for additional coronavirus testing and for our hospitals and healthcare workers.
While I am glad funds are once again flowing to small businesses and workers through programs like the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), the truth is these programs are still not fully being administered as Congress intended them. From tech problems with the application process, to loans going to big companies who have no business applying for these loans, there are significant problems that I am working to address, so we can get these resources to small businesses and their workers who need them most.
As we work through these challenges, my office stands ready to assist however we can. Below you will find resource guides my office has prepared to answer many of the frequently asked questions about federal coronavirus resources, as well as helpful links to apply for assistance and track your coronavirus stimulus check. If you or a loved one is experiencing an issue with the federal government and can’t find the information you need below, I encourage you to contact my office immediately .
Coronavirus Resources for Virginians
- Sen. Warner's Coronavirus Resource Guides
- For Small Businesses
- For Seniors and Retirees
- For Recently Unemployed Virginians
- For Veterans
- For International Travelers
- For Mental Health
- For Students
- For Native Americans
- For Gig Workers
- For Immigrants
- For Renters and Homeowners
- For Farm & Agricultural Businesses
- Get help from Sen. Warner's office with a federal agency
- Apply for assistance
- Apply for Unemployment Insurance
- Apply for Medicaid
- Apply for Small Business Administration Disaster Loans
- Apply for the Paycheck Protection Program
- Apply for USDA Assistance for Farmers
- Apply for Lifeline Broadband Internet Assistance
- Help with COVID Economic Impact Payments (Stimulus Check)
I am also pushing for greater oversight , so that the funds we’ve already spent go to small businesses and their workers. We also need to get to the bottom of the shortages of personal protective equipment and coronavirus testing that are seriously hampering our efforts to defeat this virus. The Senate will be in session next week, and I think we ought to immediately hold oversight hearings to make sure the administration is following through on the new coronavirus response laws as Congress intended.
If you want to share your thoughts about an issue that’s important to you, you can send me an email any time using the form on my Senate website. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter . I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
"
Official editorial response: "Paycheck security"? What's that supposed to mean? Is that that guaranteed-income-whether-people-work-or-not blather that any adult knows cannnot possibly work? Please, Senator, I know she's cute, but you must not take anything AOC says seriously. That child still believes in a Socialist Santa Claus. Let's start with getting people back to work, so those who are earning enough to have tax withheld from their wages can replenish the funds to pay those "stimulus" handouts to those of us who weren't eating every single day on what we were earning when we were allowed to sell books.
Tim Kaine Seeks More Federal Funding
From U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA):
"
Editorial Comment: Meh. I think lifting the lockdown and putting private employees back to work should come before any other demands for federal funding...even my own claim for the handout check as punitive damages. Y'know, between writing and bookselling my income is still well below $12,000 per year...so the lockdown has put an end to the bookselling? On half what I made last year I'm supposed to eat? I'd like to see Governor Northam get through a year on my income!
As mentioned in this morning's post (the Palinode, on your right) I'd like to see schools and workplaces adopt healthier policies to reduce the spread of all infections. There are people who could die from exposure to silly little summer colds and streppy-bugs and rhinovirus, too. I've been saying for years that all of us should adopt rules of ethics and etiquette that protect those people...without dragging the economy down into socialism.
"
Dear friend,
As
Senators, it's our job to represent our states and do everything we can
at the federal level to ensure they get the support they need. Due to
the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crisis, state and
local governments are seeing revenue plummet, putting their programs and
services at risk. In the legislation we've passed so far, we've secured
$3.3 billion in relief funding for Virginia and its localities, but
it's not enough.
I'm
working to make sure the next legislative package includes additional
federal support to ensure that critical needs for health care, emergency
services, and schools in Virginia are met. If we don't provide relief,
local governments will likely be forced to lay off critical personnel,
including first responders.
One
thing is for certain: we can't afford to lose more jobs in Virginia.
That's why we should give state and local governments the flexible
dollars they need to prevent layoffs and combat the coronavirus in their
communities. I'll keep fighting tooth and nail to make sure our cities
and counties receive federal funding to address the devastating effects
of COVID-19.
Sincerely,
" [nice signature graphic that Google doesn't like: Tim Kaine]Editorial Comment: Meh. I think lifting the lockdown and putting private employees back to work should come before any other demands for federal funding...even my own claim for the handout check as punitive damages. Y'know, between writing and bookselling my income is still well below $12,000 per year...so the lockdown has put an end to the bookselling? On half what I made last year I'm supposed to eat? I'd like to see Governor Northam get through a year on my income!
As mentioned in this morning's post (the Palinode, on your right) I'd like to see schools and workplaces adopt healthier policies to reduce the spread of all infections. There are people who could die from exposure to silly little summer colds and streppy-bugs and rhinovirus, too. I've been saying for years that all of us should adopt rules of ethics and etiquette that protect those people...without dragging the economy down into socialism.
Tortie Tuesday: Serena on Humans Staying Home
A Cat Sanctuary Cat Interview Post...
PK: Serena, what are your thoughts about humans staying home with their Tortie (three-colored, mostly black) or Calico (three-colored, mostly white) or other cats all day?
Serena: It's fun if you come out and play.Why do you ask?
PK: Since you refuse to look at the computer, you don't know our e-friends at Petfinder.com, the charitable outreach of the people at Purina who bake most of the kibble you cats eat. Anyway, they sent out an e-mail about people staying home with their cats or, in some cases, dogs.
Serena: Who cares about them?
PK: I do. You're a very unusual cat, Serena. Although (or because) life gave you the chance to start out having your mother and your human all to yourself, all the time, you've positively insisted on surrounding yourself with other cats. I knew you'd never part with Traveller from the day you laid eyes on him. I knew you mourned when he died, although he was always a sickly kitten--the only one of his litter who survived. I knew you were very much displeased with me when I let someone adopt two of your four kittens. I know you not only want to keep old Summersburr as a permanent resident, but are lobbying to get me to allow him to cozy up with you and your remaining kittens on the porch. Do you have any idea how different that is from the way normal cats behave?
Serena: Was there a normal cat in my family for the past seven generations?
PK: No. So far as I know your ancestors were social cats, listening cats, or at least remarkably clever cats, all the way down the line.
Serena: Well then. Social cats are rare, and people who've only ever known normal cats have no idea what it's like living with us. We live in tribes, as dogs do, only more cooperative and less hierarchical. We hunt in teams. We raise kittens in extended families--sometimes even including the males, although most male cats aren't fit to be around kittens. We even take naps in groups, often in ying-yang formation with our heads pillowed on our best pals' flanks, though we'll open the formation to include more than two cats.
PK: You seem to maintain a bit of a hierarchy, Queen Serena.
Serena: Humans have been calling all female cats "queens" for a long time and, although some of us, like my poor little mother Samantha, aren't tough enough to earn the title, if you watch social cats you'll see that we really do negotiate ways for each of us to rule something or other. We claim different spaces, different humans, different positions when we do things as a team. I happened to be born a Queen Cat whose claims nobody cared to dispute, even when I was a kitten--but I'm not mean or bossy. I simply rule whatever space I happen to be occupying at the moment. You've noticed that when I kiss you, I sniff the air around the bridge of your nose, your forehead, even your hair? That's a message every cat recognizes. You're welcome to have your space in the office and do what you like in it, but in my space, on the porch, I'm the Queen and etiquette obliges you to defer to me. My daughters, and my consort, are welcome to share my space because they're willing to defer to me in it. When they want to go off on their own, they can do that. They just prefer to follow me!
PK: Why would they do that?
Serena: Possibly because I'm beautiful, I'm intelligent, I'm a strong hunter, and I'm kind and generous to my loyal followers.
PK: Yes, that makes sense. Anyway, any thoughts for the other cats whose humans are staying home with them?
Serena: They should enjoy it while they can!
PK: Our e-friends at Purina mentioned that while some cats (and dogs) want more play time and lap-napping time, others have their own routines and prefer not to be disturbed, especially when their routines involve sleeping in the window for most of the day. Thoughts?
Serena: Of course! Cats' preferences vary, just as humans' do. Early in the spring I wanted to romp and play with the kittens. Now I don't.
PK: For those readers who think all cats should be spayed--
Serena: Bad humans! Hiss! Spit! I'd like to tear strips off their faces! Humans should not be allowed to interfere with the superior species!
PK: Well, that's your opinion, but since you are a social cat who's successfully reared healthy kittens I've cancelled the plans I originally had to interfere with you. You don't know what your grandmother Irene went through...watching her and Heather's kittens constantly to keep Gulegi from eating them, then having all of her own kittens except Burr and Violet die, anyway, slowly and painfully, from "Manx Syndrome." I wanted to spare you from that, but you jumped the gun and had kittens anyway. And all of them were perfectly healthy and remarkably clever and well behaved.
Serena: Of course they were! They're mine aren't they? They should be more help baby-sitting their younger siblings than Samantha Scaredycat was.
PK: At what point should humans stop marvelling at social cat families and start neutering a few of them? Our e-friend @reinosoj has dozens of cats living in one enormous tribe. Frankly I worry about them, because when a Cat Sanctuary not far from here got up to thirty cats, most of them got distemper. There's a vaccine for that, but vaccine for thirty or forty cats, or more, costs a lot of money. People who want to see how far a social cat family can grow have been sending Javier Reinoso money but you wouldn't want to be just one of forty cats here, would you?
Serena: We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As long as humans spray poison on the land, kittens will die young, like my poor soulmate Traveller who didn't even live long enough to give me any babies. And my poor little brother and sisters who were born too prematurely to live. Cat overpopulation will not be a problem and neither, if your species are stupid enough to keep spraying poisons, will human overpopulation, which is certainly more of a problem now.
PK: Cat overpopulation has certainly not become a problem here in recent years. Maintaining the population has been the challenge. So there's no need to quarrel about anybody being spayed now. Anyway, for cats (and dogs) who want their humans to play with them, do we have any tips?
Serena: Toe tips? Tail tips? Of course we have! Well, the main thing humans should know about cat toys is that what makes them really special is having someone to play with. Objects that only move as we move them, ourselves, get old fast. They become interesting when other people join the game.
PK: Are some objects more interesting than others?
Serena: Well, Traveller brought that tinkly ball that he and I used to play with, and later my kittens did. That was more fun than the tether-toy you hung up in the hedge, because it rolls onto the ground and is harder to predict. Hedge trimmings are fun to chase if humans use a little imagination. Anything that rolls easily is fun to chase if someone else rolls it in an interesting way. Frankly, cats like Summersburr, who is social but so old and dozy he might as well be normal, are easier to amuse than young, active, clever cats like me!
PK: Your day will come! Between about age five and ten all cats start taking more and deeper naps. After age ten they spend much more time sleeping than they do awake, and should probably be left to sleep in nice cozy baskets indoors all day.
Serena: Between about three months and five years, we just want to have fun!
PK: People who like a calm, mellow pet who won't interfere with their working from home should try to adopt a senior animal. Usually that's easy, since so many senior animals are put up for adoption when their humans feel unable to keep them, and so many people think they want a kitten or puppy. Senior animals who are available for adoption have probably lost an old friend. Like our Summersburr, they can seem grumpy because they miss someone, and you're not that one.
Serena: That doesn't mean they're not glad to have a home. They are. Sometimes they think "You're not my friend and you never will be. Go away," and sometimes they think "You're nice, whoever you are." Over time they get to like you more and miss their other friend less. You wouldn't uproot Summersburr again, would you? He's not learned to love you yet, but he loves my kittens, Silver and Swimmer.
PK: I'm afraid Summersburr is stuck with us now, but there are a lot of senior animals who need good homes. If you can get them to come in and settle down in your home--even if that's only at the back of the closet, under a piece of furniture, even in a carrying cage like Samantha's Special Samantha Box that she allowed Serena to pose on in that picture--that's the main thing. They don't want a lot of attention. They spend a lot of time sleeping, and will gradually get to know you.
(If Petfinder worked better with this computer I would have put in a gallery of adoptable, photogenic senior cats and dogs! In the United States you can go to Petfinder.com, search for senior dogs or cats by zipcode, and see dozens. Run your cookie cleaner program after visiting Petfinder. Sorry about that.)
Serena: Are there humans who do want to play with frisky, bouncy-pouncy young animals like me?
PK: Of course there are...and unfortunately the shelters get a lot of abandoned kittens and puppies, too.
PK: Serena, what are your thoughts about humans staying home with their Tortie (three-colored, mostly black) or Calico (three-colored, mostly white) or other cats all day?
 |
| Serena last posed for a picture as a four-month-old Junior Queen. She is now a full-grown Queen Cat who disapproves of electronics and digital pictures. This is probably the only picture that will ever show her face. |
Serena: It's fun if you come out and play.Why do you ask?
PK: Since you refuse to look at the computer, you don't know our e-friends at Petfinder.com, the charitable outreach of the people at Purina who bake most of the kibble you cats eat. Anyway, they sent out an e-mail about people staying home with their cats or, in some cases, dogs.
Serena: Who cares about them?
PK: I do. You're a very unusual cat, Serena. Although (or because) life gave you the chance to start out having your mother and your human all to yourself, all the time, you've positively insisted on surrounding yourself with other cats. I knew you'd never part with Traveller from the day you laid eyes on him. I knew you mourned when he died, although he was always a sickly kitten--the only one of his litter who survived. I knew you were very much displeased with me when I let someone adopt two of your four kittens. I know you not only want to keep old Summersburr as a permanent resident, but are lobbying to get me to allow him to cozy up with you and your remaining kittens on the porch. Do you have any idea how different that is from the way normal cats behave?
Serena: Was there a normal cat in my family for the past seven generations?
PK: No. So far as I know your ancestors were social cats, listening cats, or at least remarkably clever cats, all the way down the line.
Serena: Well then. Social cats are rare, and people who've only ever known normal cats have no idea what it's like living with us. We live in tribes, as dogs do, only more cooperative and less hierarchical. We hunt in teams. We raise kittens in extended families--sometimes even including the males, although most male cats aren't fit to be around kittens. We even take naps in groups, often in ying-yang formation with our heads pillowed on our best pals' flanks, though we'll open the formation to include more than two cats.
PK: You seem to maintain a bit of a hierarchy, Queen Serena.
Serena: Humans have been calling all female cats "queens" for a long time and, although some of us, like my poor little mother Samantha, aren't tough enough to earn the title, if you watch social cats you'll see that we really do negotiate ways for each of us to rule something or other. We claim different spaces, different humans, different positions when we do things as a team. I happened to be born a Queen Cat whose claims nobody cared to dispute, even when I was a kitten--but I'm not mean or bossy. I simply rule whatever space I happen to be occupying at the moment. You've noticed that when I kiss you, I sniff the air around the bridge of your nose, your forehead, even your hair? That's a message every cat recognizes. You're welcome to have your space in the office and do what you like in it, but in my space, on the porch, I'm the Queen and etiquette obliges you to defer to me. My daughters, and my consort, are welcome to share my space because they're willing to defer to me in it. When they want to go off on their own, they can do that. They just prefer to follow me!
PK: Why would they do that?
Serena: Possibly because I'm beautiful, I'm intelligent, I'm a strong hunter, and I'm kind and generous to my loyal followers.
PK: Yes, that makes sense. Anyway, any thoughts for the other cats whose humans are staying home with them?
Serena: They should enjoy it while they can!
PK: Our e-friends at Purina mentioned that while some cats (and dogs) want more play time and lap-napping time, others have their own routines and prefer not to be disturbed, especially when their routines involve sleeping in the window for most of the day. Thoughts?
Serena: Of course! Cats' preferences vary, just as humans' do. Early in the spring I wanted to romp and play with the kittens. Now I don't.
PK: For those readers who think all cats should be spayed--
Serena: Bad humans! Hiss! Spit! I'd like to tear strips off their faces! Humans should not be allowed to interfere with the superior species!
PK: Well, that's your opinion, but since you are a social cat who's successfully reared healthy kittens I've cancelled the plans I originally had to interfere with you. You don't know what your grandmother Irene went through...watching her and Heather's kittens constantly to keep Gulegi from eating them, then having all of her own kittens except Burr and Violet die, anyway, slowly and painfully, from "Manx Syndrome." I wanted to spare you from that, but you jumped the gun and had kittens anyway. And all of them were perfectly healthy and remarkably clever and well behaved.
Serena: Of course they were! They're mine aren't they? They should be more help baby-sitting their younger siblings than Samantha Scaredycat was.
PK: At what point should humans stop marvelling at social cat families and start neutering a few of them? Our e-friend @reinosoj has dozens of cats living in one enormous tribe. Frankly I worry about them, because when a Cat Sanctuary not far from here got up to thirty cats, most of them got distemper. There's a vaccine for that, but vaccine for thirty or forty cats, or more, costs a lot of money. People who want to see how far a social cat family can grow have been sending Javier Reinoso money but you wouldn't want to be just one of forty cats here, would you?
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| To see more pictures of the fur tribe, follow @reinosoj on Twitter. To help feed them, go to paypal.me/FReinosoPerez . |
Serena: We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. As long as humans spray poison on the land, kittens will die young, like my poor soulmate Traveller who didn't even live long enough to give me any babies. And my poor little brother and sisters who were born too prematurely to live. Cat overpopulation will not be a problem and neither, if your species are stupid enough to keep spraying poisons, will human overpopulation, which is certainly more of a problem now.
PK: Cat overpopulation has certainly not become a problem here in recent years. Maintaining the population has been the challenge. So there's no need to quarrel about anybody being spayed now. Anyway, for cats (and dogs) who want their humans to play with them, do we have any tips?
Serena: Toe tips? Tail tips? Of course we have! Well, the main thing humans should know about cat toys is that what makes them really special is having someone to play with. Objects that only move as we move them, ourselves, get old fast. They become interesting when other people join the game.
PK: Are some objects more interesting than others?
Serena: Well, Traveller brought that tinkly ball that he and I used to play with, and later my kittens did. That was more fun than the tether-toy you hung up in the hedge, because it rolls onto the ground and is harder to predict. Hedge trimmings are fun to chase if humans use a little imagination. Anything that rolls easily is fun to chase if someone else rolls it in an interesting way. Frankly, cats like Summersburr, who is social but so old and dozy he might as well be normal, are easier to amuse than young, active, clever cats like me!
PK: Your day will come! Between about age five and ten all cats start taking more and deeper naps. After age ten they spend much more time sleeping than they do awake, and should probably be left to sleep in nice cozy baskets indoors all day.
Serena: Between about three months and five years, we just want to have fun!
PK: People who like a calm, mellow pet who won't interfere with their working from home should try to adopt a senior animal. Usually that's easy, since so many senior animals are put up for adoption when their humans feel unable to keep them, and so many people think they want a kitten or puppy. Senior animals who are available for adoption have probably lost an old friend. Like our Summersburr, they can seem grumpy because they miss someone, and you're not that one.
Serena: That doesn't mean they're not glad to have a home. They are. Sometimes they think "You're not my friend and you never will be. Go away," and sometimes they think "You're nice, whoever you are." Over time they get to like you more and miss their other friend less. You wouldn't uproot Summersburr again, would you? He's not learned to love you yet, but he loves my kittens, Silver and Swimmer.
PK: I'm afraid Summersburr is stuck with us now, but there are a lot of senior animals who need good homes. If you can get them to come in and settle down in your home--even if that's only at the back of the closet, under a piece of furniture, even in a carrying cage like Samantha's Special Samantha Box that she allowed Serena to pose on in that picture--that's the main thing. They don't want a lot of attention. They spend a lot of time sleeping, and will gradually get to know you.
(If Petfinder worked better with this computer I would have put in a gallery of adoptable, photogenic senior cats and dogs! In the United States you can go to Petfinder.com, search for senior dogs or cats by zipcode, and see dozens. Run your cookie cleaner program after visiting Petfinder. Sorry about that.)
Serena: Are there humans who do want to play with frisky, bouncy-pouncy young animals like me?
PK: Of course there are...and unfortunately the shelters get a lot of abandoned kittens and puppies, too.
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