I just heard Farrah Fawcett has passed away. I, along with pretty every other male in my generation had the iconic poster on the wall of my bedroom.
It feels a little odd to see the sex symbols of my youth begin to die off. It was one thing when Bob Hope, George Burns and Frank Sinatra went, they were old! I suppose it’s just another symptom of time moving on and our approaching mortality.
Good bye Farrah, one seemingly ten-year old boy will miss you.
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men, gang aft agley. — Robert Burns
I’d been working on a new post trying to lay out my new animal activism philosophy, when the Real World(tm) reared it’s ugly head and disrupted everything. Basically I was going to say I was going to concentrate on culinary activism because that’s what I seem to actually be good at and not worry so much about other things.
Oops.
Some of our local community have decided they’d like to begin killing pigeons. Now I can’t exactly say I love pigeons but don’t think they need to die to accomplish the aims here. The problem we’re having is our 1903 courthouse, which is a beautiful building, is being damaged by the pigeon droppings being left on it. Anyone who has a car that’s been pooped upon will be able to relate. Anyone who keeps parrots will definitely be able to (I’m looking at you, Ozzie and BB!)
It seems that several things have been tried to an effort to prevent the birds from perching on the courthouse. We’ve got a nesting pair of peregrine falcons living in one of our taller buildings and they, of course, eat pigeons among other things. Some of our buildings with flatter roofs have spike strips to keep the pigeons from landing. Sound machines have tried to scare them away. And all to no avail.
But I can’t see killing them as the answer. Purely on practical terms, pigeons are nothing if not prolific. Unless we’re to wage some sort of war on pigeons for miles around, new birds are just going to move in.
And I have to ask, how do other cities deal with pigeons? We’re certainly not the only city with both pigeons and old buildings.
So I’m off to gather up some contact information and start writing some letters. I would like to solicit some input from you, my dear readers. Do any of you know of any good humane pigeon removal resources? How other cities are dealing with this issue?
I’ll be putting up a page with the information I come up with and hopefully a solution.
UPDATE: I’ve found another site that’s also calling for Mr. Letterman’s resignation via a sponsor boycott and is doing it much better than I ever could. Please visit hillbuzz.org and help us stand up for ourselves.
It seems that David Letterman thinks so. With his ‘joke’ about the rape of Willow Palin and his refusal to issue a real apology it’s hard to draw any other conclusion. Now it’s been quite a while since Mr Letterman has actually been funny but there’s a big difference between boorish and offensive.
Other folks have already called for a boycott of the sponsors of the Late Show. I would encourage everyone to contact the show’s supporters and let them know how you feel.
Now it may not be common knowledge but Mr. Letterman has an auto racing team along with Bobby Rahal. And if you’ve ever watched a race, you know the cars and their drivers are just covered in sponsor’s logos. So maybe a few of them would like to reconsider their association with a man who likes to joke about underage girls being raped?
Here’s the list I’ve been able to find so far. I’ll put up contact information as I find it.
the largest operation in military history was launched, the Allied return to northern Europe.
While it may not be directly related to Normandy, I find myself thinking of an incident a few years ago. I was in the kitchen, helping to clean up after a dinner with my ex’s family (we were still married at the time). Some of the teens were out back doing some sort of silly thing. One of the older men looked out at them and said, “What are those kids doing out there?” Hoping to head off a rant, someone said, “And what were you doing when you were that age?” The answer? “Landing on the beach at Okinawa.” And then the room got very quiet.
Thanks to all the participants, the ones who came home and the ones that stayed forever.
No, not the cheesy 1979 movie. But the Quakers have shown up in Amityville, Long Island, NY. Read the Whole Thing and be sure to check out the size of that nest!
Some of the folks out there may remember Willie the Hero Quaker parrot. For those who don’t, Willie’s a Quaker in Colorado and when his companion left the room for a moment, the toddler she was babysitting started to choke and Willie started screaming, “Mama! Baby! Mama! Baby!” She ran back in, did the Heimlich on the child and everyone lived happily ever after.
The Red Cross gave Willie an award recently and Fox News interviewed Willie and his companion. Just like my two, Willie was not about to say a word. But it’s kind of fun watching him poop on the arm of the chair.
No worries, this isn’t going to be another post about getting Iggy down off the curtain rod again. It’s about efforts to save the kakapo.
The kakapo is a large (about nine pounds) and flightless parrot. It also has lost pretty much semblance of an effective fight or flight mechanism. As you can imagine, once man came on the scene, a large bird that basically just sets there and looks at you would become known as just one thing, lunch. And so most of the kakapos went down European gullets.
Fortunately, New Zealand has begun a program to save the kakopa and there are now more than 100. In fact there are more than 30 chicks currently being raised. And an American zoologist has been providing medical assistance to the program.
No, it’s not a sequel to the Alfred Hitchcock classic. Although I’d pay money to see that, come to think of it …
The Wal-Mart in Mays Landing, New Jersey, has a problem with birds flying in. Now I can understand why that isn’t a desirable situation. Nobody wants bird poop on their stuff before they can even get it home so live trapping the birds and releasing them outside seems like a pretty good solution. But, you do have to check the traps occasionally or they aren’t so much of a live trap anymore. And that seems to be the problem. The local SPCA has accused Wal-Mart of leaving birds to die in their traps. We’ll see.
. Although I’d pay money to see that, come to think of it …
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