April 2007 Archives

I was looking through the New York Times website. An article about ducks appearing in the science section caught my eye. I began reading it and came across a sentence that I figured had to be the sentence of the author's career:

Dr. Brennan was oblivious to bird phalluses until 1999.

How could a journalist write that sentence and not think "I have reached the pinnacle. Now I can die."
K-

I stumbled across this site with its real time Global Incident Map. Keep track of all those suspicious events going on in your town. Last time I checked, there was nothing suspicious going on in Cuba or North Korea.

But I've got my eye on them.
K-

Someone left guitar tabs for Purple Haze lying on the computer table. (And it wasn't me, Danny!) Made me wonder whether Hendrix would have downloaded tabs from the Internet were he alive today. Then I recalled something I once read, probably on a screensaver:

Anyone can be taught how to sculpt. Michelangelo would have to be taught how not to.
K-

I slept with the windows open last night. Wide open. Maryland had its first warm night of the summer yesterday and I wanted to take full advantage.

Of course, the disadvantage of sleeping with the windows open is that you're disturbed by every stray noise coming your way - trains, that silly fox barking at all hours, dogs, the murmur of homeowners getting that one last chore done before bed.

And then there's the dawn chorus.

The dawn chorus occurs each year during breeding season. Shortly before dawn - and continuing for sometime after - every male bird is singing. They're marking their breeding territory while at the same time enticing females to become their life partners, at least for a few months. This morning's dawn chorus was so loud and incessant it woke me up early. I lay in bed ticking off the birds I could hear singing in the predawn: northern cardinal, American robin, song sparrow, house sparrow, northern mockingbird, American goldfinch, downy woodpecker, tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, Carolina chickadee, white-throated sparrow, European starling. I counted every backyard bird I could reasonably expect to hear except the one I wanted to hear most.

Fred and Ethel have yet to show up.

Bluebirds were looking at my nestboxes back in March but that was the last time I saw them. They haven't taken up residence in my backyard. I don't hear the male bluebird singing. I'm guessing they're not around this year. Maybe there's too much hubbub in my neighborhood now or they've gotten nervous about the proximity of all the houses. A couple of years ago, my bluebirds didn't start their first brood till well into May, so I'm still hopeful.

Until then my nestboxes are nothing more than fancy house sparrow traps. I've caught two of those so far this year.
K-

The weatherman tells me that this weekend will be worth the wait. Warm temperatures and blue skies are in the offing. The clement weather will help me forget that my desktop computer at work died yesterday leaving me without access to my work for a few days.

Enjoy your weekend.
K-

I was driving to work yesterday when, from out of the blue, a name popped right into my head. Boom.

Emil Dogsworth.

I can't explain why that name arrived. That it arrived is all that's important. The name came to me fully formed and whole.

Emil Dogsworth.

I know I'm supposed to do something with it. That I'm sure about. Emil Dogsworth. The name sounds sophisticated, continental, very cosmopolitan. Is he a character in my first novel? My nom-de-plume? Am I to become Emil? Or was it merely some subconscious claptrap breaking through, perhaps inspired by my Picture of the Week? I've googled the name and searched IMDB. I know the name is mine, mine to use how I see fit.

And I'm ready.
E-

Yesterday, about one o'clock in the afternoon, I became filled with the need to hear my son's voice.

All morning long I had been watching the massacre at Virginia Tech unfold. VT is a school Andrew and I visited during his college search. We spent the day touring the campus, talking to professors, and looking in dorms. I liked Tech. The curriculum was strong, the area scenic, and its football team on the upswing. He could go there and I would be happy. But for reasons that elude me now, VT didn't figure into Andrew's plans. Maybe Blacksburg was too small, too country, or too far away. But for whatever reason, Andrew declined the 300-mile, 5-hour drive to VT. He opted for Maryland.

Despite its distance, however, Virginia Tech draws many Maryland students. I know four Howard County families with children there and know of a few more. Several of Andrew's high school friends go there. VT has become one of the schools talented Maryland students naturally consider when they are looking for universities. In this sense, Virginia Tech is not "far away."

Right after lunch, when the CNN body count ticked upward yet again, a small twinge of concern flicked through me. "Let's just give Andrew a call and see how he's doing," I thought. It wasn't rational. I knew he was safe. But I wanted to talk to him nonetheless.

He sounded very glum on the phone. I think he was a little freaked-out despite his tendency - the tendency of many young people - to separate from unpleasant things. But he couldn't make this unpleasant thing be something else, be something different, be something far away. He's in college; this is a college. He's an engineer; they were engineers. His close high school friends - Mike and Steve and Ivy - could be hurt or worse. "Yeah, I heard about it" was about all he said. I think he knew if a murderous rampage could occur in Blacksburg, it could occur in College Park or Charlottesville or Winston-Salem or Clemson. He realized that Virginia Tech was a lot closer than he thought. It wasn't "far away."

Not far away at all.
K-

A nor'easter blew by Maryland yesterday dumping almost 3" of rain at Beckett Haus. The gardener was thrilled to get the day off running over two small children and a poodle as he hightailed it to the couch.

As far as natural disasters are concerned Maryland is in a backwater. No earthquakes, the infrequent tropical storm, a tornado or two each year, a blizzard about as often as a Democrat occupies the Oval Office is pretty much it. But it's from nor'easters that Maryland receives its biggest punches.

The April 15 nor'easter was a corker. I'm sure the mid-Atlantic beaches from Cape Henlopen to Chincoteague Island are gone. And no doubt the eponymous high winds that always follow the deluge will take down dozens of trees rooted in now rain-soaked ground. Some folks will lose power.

The winds are especially fierce with this storm. The winds roared all through the night. They continue to rage even as I write this. The house squeaks and shudders as the 50 mph gusts blow by. The winds are supposed to subside by tomorrow night once we get through a high-wind warning that begins late this morning.

The NWS tells us it's only going to get windier.
K-

I was able to turn a recent blog entry into a letter to the editor in today's Baltimore Sun. At least my blogging was good for something. You can see what was published here.

I'm always happy when one of my letters is printed but I really hate when they massage my words. Today's letter, for instance, is not how I originally sent it in. I won't claim the edited version is better: I'm a serious blogger for heaven's sake! I'd like to meet the guy who modified my words. It better not have been some snot-nosed intern blue-lining my prose and looking for clichéd writing. I always avoid clichéd writing!

Like the plague.
K-

A movie that had been in my Netflix queue for more than a year finally made it to the top. Grizzly Man is a documentary by German director Werner Herzog. It features Tim Treadwell, a Californian who spent 13 years living among Alaska's grizzly bear population. Grizzly Man made it into my queue based on a recommendation from a friend. I need to take my friend's film recommendations a lot more seriously.

Grizzly Man is the most compelling movie I have seen in as long as I can remember.

Using much of Treadwell's own film footage from Alaska, Herzog presents a fascinating look at someone whose exuberance, passion, and unbounded enthusiasm mask a heartbreaking madness, a madness that results in Treadwell's own death and the death of a companion. Watching Herzog listen to the final audio tape of Treadwell and his girlfriend was, for me, more eerie and appalling than actually hearing it myself.

Wow. I mean, wow. Listen to my friend. You gotta see this movie.
K-

An update to this. Yesterday the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill requiring that Maryland restaurants and bars be smoke-free beginning in February 2008. The smoking ban includes private clubs. Governor Martin O'Malley has pledged to sign the smoking ban legislation.

The General Assembly ended its 90-day session ducking a few pressing issues: Maryland's looming budget deficit and the ongoing decline of the Chesapeake Bay chief among them. Other contentious issues - granting in-state tuition to the children of illegal immigrants and slot machines in Maryland - were deferred until next year. Bills to ban the death penalty and assault weapons were defeated. The tone of discourse seemed more pleasant now that Robert Ehrlich is gone.

That's it till next year.
K-

Handheld at 1/15s.
K-

One of the great things about having a personal blog is that you can comment on anything you wish. Whether you have any credibility in the subject or have any business even proffering an opinion doesn't matter. It's your blog and if you want to go off... well people know where the back button is.

So it is with this post. I've got no real business commenting on this but I feel like it anyway.

I've been watching Don Imus flail and thrash around after his "nappy-headed hos" comment about the Rutgers women's basketball team. Imus claims he was trying to be funny. I don't know, I didn't hear it. I've never heard Imus on the radio and I've only occasionally surfed by him on MSNBC, though I'm certain had I heard the comment, I wouldn't have thought it funny.

Now let me be clear. I don't like talk radio. And my going-in opinion is that if you're a talk radio personality, you're pretty much of a dickhead. Don Imus, Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Howard Stern, or Diane Rehm, I don't care who you are or what you talk about, if you're in talk radio and you're talking to me, we negotiate up from dickhead.

So had the "ho" comment come from a normal human being possessing some semblance of conscience, it could only be viewed as racist, mean-spirited, cruel, and undeserved. But it didn't. The comment came from a talk radio personality. That's what those people get paid to do. Make base, contemptible comments posited as humorous, trenchant observations. Imus was just doing his job... validating the thoughts and prejudices of his small-minded listeners.

For now, Imus will don the brown helmet and make the mea culpa rounds. People will lament the coarsening of society and wag their fingers at the medium. Some people will be understandably - and properly - angry and indignant. But I don't see Imus losing his job over this. The whole thing will probably attract listeners.

Listeners who should be ashamed of themselves.
K-

It snowed last night. In more than 25 years living in Maryland, I don't recall snow in April. Maybe in the mountains of western Maryland but never around here. The snow will be gone before noon. During my quick Saturday morning blog walk, I see it disappearing before my eyes.
K-

We haven't done a Wednesday Dottles for a while, so here goes:

1. The importance of Tastykakes in my life cannot be overstated.

2. The Maryland Legislature last week issued an apology expressing "profound regret" that Maryland once "trafficked in human flesh." A lot of white folks in Maryland think the apology was unnecessary since they had nothing to do with slavery. They need to rethink.

3. It looks like I'll have to mow the lawn this weekend. My life in hell resumes.

4. Not to give the band additional grief after the suicide of Brad Delp, but I always expected more out of Boston.

5. Akeelah and the Bee is worth watching. Spelling is not my strong suit. I've always had trouble with "embarrassment", ible/able words, and ence/ance words. Stranger Than Fiction was the last movie I saw that I gave 5-stars to using the Netflix scale.

6. Sanity reigns. The FCC ruled to continue the prohibition on cell phone use in airplanes. At the risk of exposing my ageism and sexism, young people, especially young women, seem to have the most inane, pointless cell phone conversations I could ever imagine.

7. I would like to know what kind of person takes Bill O'Reilly seriously. Really. Who are these people?

8. Check out one of my favorite photo blogs: Blue Ridge blog. I could be as good a photographer as she is if I only had her material (and technique and eye for light and composition skill and...).

9. I'm sensing grilled bratwursts in the not-too-distant future. It's about time.

10. The Orioles are already breaking my heart despite a good spring. Prediction: Manager Sam Perlozzo won't last the season.

K-

Who turned out pretty good despite having such an evil, evil father.

Happy 21st birthday, Andrew.
K-

The alternative minimum tax is a big, fat, expensive bite on my ass.
K-

I like to bird. Have I ever mentioned that? Birding is what "birdwatching" is now called, at least by those of us who do it as a hobby. I'll bird anywhere, anytime. Saturday night I birded Blood Diamond. It's always fun to bird movies. Usually I have to identify the birds by the songs I hear on the soundtrack. Curiously in Blood Diamond, I kept hearing the "trees, trees, murmuring trees" song of the black-throated green warbler whenever Leo was in the jungle. I think the movie was filmed in Africa so the black-throated greens I was hearing in the movie were either there in Africa or else it's a sound-alike bird. That or the Foley artists got it wrong.

I also bird while driving. I scan the trees, sky, and light poles for whatever happens to be on display. Birding while driving sounds less dangerous than it is. I should have a bumper sticker on my car that reads "Caution: I'm birding but it feels like I'm driving."

Anyway, I've noticed around the mid-Atlantic area the population of vultures - particularly black vultures - is really taking off. I am seeing vultures everywhere. A few years ago, I never saw vultures perched on the overhead streetlights as I drove to work. Now it's routine. Today I saw a couple poles with one vulture perched on them and one pole with three - three! - vultures perched on it. I know it's not my imagination... I'm telling you I'm seeing a lot more vultures than before. Let me tell you, seeing a bunch of vultures hanging around looks very, very weird. I guess having more vultures is a direct consequence of Maryland's plan to control the deer population using the automobile direct-impact approach.

There is roadkill galore.
K-