Just as in a fictional whodunit the villain needs to be particularly clever, devious or evil to highlight the skills of the detective, so in real-life investigations I have found the police will often concoct complex stories to explain the criminal's actions, making themselves seem especially insightful and intelligent.
As with the Bald Eagle, every major step forward typically follows significant population losses that force rescue efforts for birds heading toward extinction. If there's a single pattern that shows up time and time again in the history of our relationship with birds, it is this: we wait until a crisis to act. And that is where we still are today.
August 23
consanguinate (v.) To sympathize, to have an affinity with or fondness for.
Terrorism is a peculiar category of violence, because it has a cockeyed ratio of fear to harm.
Places are never without significance. Our lives are scratched into the surface of the Earth's crust, scratches that tell our personal history as much as our social history.
August 22
desulture (n.) The act of vaulting from one horse to another.
TALK TURKEY
Meaning: Dispense with the small talk and get down to business
Origin: The phrase first appeared in the American colonial days when the Pilgrim Fathers always seemed to want turkeys when they traded with the Indians. So familiar did their requests become that the Indians would greet them with the words, “You come to talk turkey?“
TO HANDLE WITH KID GLOVES:
Origin: Leather from the hide of young goats-- called kids -- was considered the finest in the glove industry. Kid-leather gloves were only worn when there was no danger of undertaking a manual task. Therefore, anyone or anything that is given the “kid-glove“ treatment is handled with extreme tact and gentleness.“
In Victorian England, the word “leg“ was considered too sexy and, thus, too vulgar. At the time, the preferred term, if one absolutely had to refer to a lower extremity, was “limb.“
August 21
cyllenian (adj.) Pertaining to theft or thieving
Fishing for sharks, cutting off their fins for soup, and then throwing the rest back into the sea is a hideous practice, but the sharks may be getting the last laugh. Researchers at the University of Miami found out in 2012 that shark fins contain a neurotoxin that scientists have linked to Lou Gehrig's disease and other degenerative conditions, such as Alzheimer's.
A year later, a member of a group called The Gospel Coalition admitted that Chau had not only broken Indian law in pursuit of his evangelical mission, but also risked transmitting some deadly disease to those he sought to convert. Still, the writer argued, this is a perfectly acceptable risk: the fate of the islanders' immortal souls weighs more than their earthly survival.
Ayapaneco-- an indigenous language from Ayapa, Mexico-- might soon go extinct because the last two people on Earth who can speak it are not speaking to each other. It's not known what caused the feud between the two elderly men, but those who know them say they've “never really enjoyed each other's company.“
A San Francisco salon called Tata Massage offers a unique beauty treatment: face slapping. The owner, a Thai woman who goes by the name Tata, claims that slapping people in the face is a great way to remove wrinkles and open pores. She charges $350 for a ten-minute slap session. Also available: “massage boxing.“
August 15
circumduction (n.) a longwinded, roundabout route or course of action
August 12
jeopard (v.) to stake a bet
And all at one those insignificant events were imbued, magically and painfully, with the deceptive glow of neglected opportunities.
There is a syndrome called folie a plusieurs (or “folly of several) in which two or more people (usually family members) share the same delusional beliefs or hallucinations that are transmitted between them.
According to Anthony Storr, English psychiatrist and author of several books, including his 1996 Feet of Clay: A Study of Gurus, “chronic schizophrenics often invent words which carry a special meaning for them but which others find hard to understand.“
Beaver testicles, “either rubbed on the forehead or dried and dissolved in water,“ were considered cures for both drowsiness and idiocy.
August 8
climb-tack (n.)-- a cat that likes to walk on shelves.
Birds consume an estimated 400 to 500 million tons of bugs a year-- a mind-boggling sum when you consider that typical insects weigh just a milligram or two.
In Japan, the term for “drunk tank“ is “tiger box.“
Thousand Island dressing was named for the 1,864 islands in Canada's St. Lawrence River.
“Stendahl syndrome“ is the state of being mentally overwhelmed by the beauty of art.
Lincoln's body has been “buried, disturbed, and reburied“ 17 times.
In Thailand, they text “555,“ not “LOL.“ (In Thai, the number 5 is pronounced “ha.“)
In 2005, a man in Baltimore, Maryland purchased a car radio from Best Buy and tried to pay the $114 installation fee with 57 $2 bills. The store manager was suspicious of the bills and called the police, who detained him for three hours (in handcuffs) while they brought in the Secret Service to determine whether the bills were genuine. (They were).
Because of a persistent myth that $2 bills are no longer in production, some people hoard them. According to the U.S. Treasury, there are about 500 million $2 bills in circulation.
A 51-year-old Czech truck driver fell asleep while driving through Poland in 2011, and smashed through the kitchen wall of a house where a family of four had just sat down for breakfast. The mother said that the driver hopped out of the truck and asked for a cup of coffee. “At that point,“ she went on, “some bricks fell out of the wall onto his head and knocked him out cold.“ The driver was treated and released at a local hospital. 😅
In April 2011, a new bookstore opened up in New York's Greenwhich Village, operated by Andrew Kessler. Although you could buy as many copies as you wanted, the store sold only 1 book: A Martian Summer by Andrew Kessler. Kessler, told the NY Times,“People ask, 'how can you possibly pay your bills.'“ He later admitted that he didn't have any bills-- the landlord let him use the place for free until a paying tenant took over, which was 1 month later.
Our word “bank“ comes from a quaint custom in Italy. Beginning in the 16th century, Italian money changers conducted their business outdoors, on benches. Many Italian cities set up benches for banking business, and it so happens that the Italian word for bench is banco. As banking activity spread through Europe, the word reached England, where it became bank.
U.S. president with the most American high schools named after him: John F. Kennedy (98). Nine former presidents have just one school named in their honor--John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Chester Alan Arthur, Franklin Pierce, Zachary Taylor, and Andrew Johnson. One president has exactly zero schools named after him: Richard Nixon.
pickThis was one of the best books I've read this year, and the best book I've ever read on the topic of being childfree. #2025Book32
Whenever I see some IVF mom coming past with one of those triple-strollers, I'm forced to jump out of the way because there's no room on the sidewalk and they stop for nobody. Then I allow myself a sigh of relief. I'm relieved because I'm not them. Lost the battle for the sidewalk, won the war for myself.
They pick and probe and when confronted with facts and reason they attack: we're selfish, immature, afraid of commitment, irresponsible and apparently pretty horrible people. We're not, and our reasons are just as valid as yours. You have kids because they make you happy. We don't because that makes us happy.
We look at yours and we know why.
We all know one or two inveterate breeders. In my case she's at the office. This mother of three is taking fertility treatment now because she wants twins. That is, two more kids on top of the three she has. Is it some kind of weird challenge? Did a relative just pop out twins? Has she always dreamed of it, is that the problem? These people seem to define themselves by how many kids they can produce. Is it an ego thing? Competiveness?...
Yes, I was a child once, as you keep reminding me, and an adolescent and a youth, and THAT qualifies me to comment on what they do.
I have my own idea of what my future should look like and it does not include a chalk-chewer growing into a moody adolescent then a disappointing adult.
It needs to become more socially acceptable to be childfree and proud. There's absolutely no excuse anymore for the breeders to pour scorn.
One blogger commented that a lot of women get angry when she tells them she's not especially sad that she happens to be infertile. She has come to terms with it. My problem is that THEY haven't. What gives them the right to be angry at her? Should she be miserable all the time because she can't have kids? Is infertility a sin she has to atone for? For some reason people think they are “allowed“ to get hysterical when they hear you are childfree...
“Well what about all the poor people who can't have kids?“
Jesus spare us, please.
This is nothing but pure intimidation. They're making it personal and trying to paint you to anyone who might be listening as heartless and insensitive. How will your procreating help the childless? There is no connection at all. Herein lies your trump card. If people want to adopt there is no shortage of orphans. Or maybe there is, but providing an orphan...
British comedian Rosin Conaty points out the double standard when it comes to dogs and children. A proudly childfree woman herself, she muses in her act on how people try to talk you out of having a pet, but not a child: you'll have to walk it, to feed it, to pick up its poop, we're told. Tell them you're thinking of having a kid though and nobody has the courage to point out that it too needs feeding, and craps itself and will demand from you...
Not so the tragedy that struck a zoo in Cincinatti only weeks earlier, for which I DO blame the parents. There, a three-year-old climbed into the gorilla pen and was seized by a large silverback. Fearful that the ape's rough play might injure or kill the boy, the park called in armed gamekeepers. Sadly, they missed and shot the gorilla. Gorillas are endangered, children are not. The gorilla's name was Harambe; nobody remembers the boy's.
Take down that damn Baby on Board sticker. Yeah we get it --it's supposed to warn other drivers in general and give a heads up to emergency rescue in an accident but, be honest with yourselves: just having it makes you think you're entitled to drive too fast, cut people off, park anywhere, refuse to give way and generally bully everyone around on the road, while they all have to suck it up because precious child is strapped in the back.
Restaurants that have instituted childfree policies, such as banning kids under a certain age, or banning them at certain times in the evening, have even reported an uptick in business. They've lost the noisy families, but it turns out those noisy families were driving away all the other customers, who have now returned in droves. So please, keep your kids at home while I'm eating out.
There has been increasing call for childfree restaurants and spaces in public. They've got an increasing backlash too, mostly from the Monster Mums Club, who just love to bitch and whine when they hear other people have no time for their sproglodytes.
On the popular website debate.org, the proposition that there should be childfree restaurants garnered a 95% approval rating. The problem is if you happen to meet one of those 5 percent against...
We wouldn't bring our dogs into a restaurant, so you shouldn't bring your kids in. Simple as that. People even have the nerve to bring them to beachside pubs late on a Saturday afternoon. If there's one place I should be able to get away from children, it is a BAR, people. What kind of parent are you anyway?
