The Birds

Before I forget again to mention it.

This is the first year that the birds have not built a nest on our porch since they began the yearly ritual a very long time ago.

Actually, they did try once in the spring, but apparently they started to build it right on top of our door, and Father had to remove it, and they stopped trying after that.

Maybe the cats have something to do with this.

I have mixed feelings.

I kind of liked seeing that extra stream of life flowing through our lives. The baby birds. Their feeding. Learning how to fly.

On the other hand, I hated having to hose down the porch a couple of times a week. Worse, I hated seeing the baby birds face that threat to their lives, from both the cats and this dry, killing weather.

I have been trying to remember when the birds started with us.

Did this begin when Mother was still here?

It might have, but I cannot remember at all clearly. I would bet that it did, because I think I used to worry about Princess as well as Bo bothering the birds, so that I would make a point of taking them out back when the baby birds might be trying their wings.

The Birds

Before I forget again to mention it.

This is the first year that the birds have not built a nest on our porch since they began the yearly ritual a very long time ago.

Actually, they did try once in the spring, but apparently they started to build it right on top of our door, and Father had to remove it, and they stopped trying after that.

Maybe the cats have something to do with this.

I have mixed feelings.

I kind of liked seeing that extra stream of life flowing through our lives. The baby birds. Their feeding. Learning how to fly.

On the other hand, I hated having to hose down the porch a couple of times a week. Worse, I hated seeing the baby birds face that threat to their lives, from both the cats and this dry, killing weather.

I have been trying to remember when the birds started with us.

Did this begin when Mother was still here?

It might have, but I cannot remember at all clearly. I would bet that it did, because I think I used to worry about Princess as well as Bo bothering the birds, so that I would make a point of taking them out back when the baby birds might be trying their wings.

The Horror

A new book is out offering us an exegetical look at modern horror movies that go back to the 1960s. I am not uninterested, but such a book goes low, low down on my virtual stack of 'wanna reads'. The book reviewer has some qualms about the work, and I want to keep this point:

Elsewhere the book poses questions it neglects to answer. The author quotes the director Brian De Palma — “There is just something about a woman and a knife” — and then wonders, “But what is that something?” without once considering the most obvious, phallic interpretation.

You can’t deliver the final word on horror movies if you’re afraid to look.

Aside from being obviously amusing, I think this hits on a more general problem when it comes to discussing books and movies and even social problems. Although life on the streets is as raw as it ever was, when we deal with issues on a formal, public level, we seem to have such a strong filter for only the most politically correct perspectives, a problem which I think the reviewer raises nicely here.

What a vulgar thought it is, right, to speak of remorselessly and repeatedly stabbing a sexy young woman unto a horribly violent death, 'fucking' her life out with a knife. Yet, as he says, how obvious! That this should be entertaining may be unfortunate but it's hardly a mystery. At least it is better to exorcise this male ferocity through movies and art.

I know I get a lot of therapeutic value out of working my virtual knife into the short-skirted babes in Grand Theft Auto 4. And I think our understanding of ourselves is enhanced when we accept this shadow underside rather than assuming we are essentially angelic beings except for a few monsters among us. The wiser heads have always known that there is a bit of a monster in just about all of us, albeit more in some of us than in others.

(Source: Ty Burr reviewing Jason Zinoman's "Shock Value" for The New York Times)

The Horror

A new book is out offering us an exegetical look at modern horror movies that go back to the 1960s. I am not uninterested, but such a book goes low, low down on my virtual stack of 'wanna reads'. The book reviewer has some qualms about the work, and I want to keep this point:

Elsewhere the book poses questions it neglects to answer. The author quotes the director Brian De Palma — “There is just something about a woman and a knife” — and then wonders, “But what is that something?” without once considering the most obvious, phallic interpretation.

You can’t deliver the final word on horror movies if you’re afraid to look.

Aside from being obviously amusing, I think this hits on a more general problem when it comes to discussing books and movies and even social problems. Although life on the streets is as raw as it ever was, when we deal with issues on a formal, public level, we seem to have such a strong filter for only the most politically correct perspectives, a problem which I think the reviewer raises nicely here.

What a vulgar thought it is, right, to speak of remorselessly and repeatedly stabbing a sexy young woman unto a horribly violent death, 'fucking' her life out with a knife. Yet, as he says, how obvious! That this should be entertaining may be unfortunate but it's hardly a mystery. At least it is better to exorcise this male ferocity through movies and art.

I know I get a lot of therapeutic value out of working my virtual knife into the short-skirted babes in Grand Theft Auto 4. And I think our understanding of ourselves is enhanced when we accept this shadow underside rather than assuming we are essentially angelic beings except for a few monsters among us. The wiser heads have always known that there is a bit of a monster in just about all of us, albeit more in some of us than in others.

(Source: Ty Burr reviewing Jason Zinoman's "Shock Value" for The New York Times)

Of Apes and Unicorns

"You believe we're descended from apes?"

"Well, boys definitely are."

"And girls?"

"Unicorns."

-- "Doonesbury" by G. B. Trudeau

It's been a long time since I've seen anything from Doonesbury. This one hits on the idea that schools give equal class-time to creationism with evolution. I see Trudeau still gots game.

( Cartoon )

Of Apes and Unicorns

"You believe we're descended from apes?"

"Well, boys definitely are."

"And girls?"

"Unicorns."

-- "Doonesbury" by G. B. Trudeau

It's been a long time since I've seen anything from Doonesbury. This one hits on the idea that schools give equal class-time to creationism with evolution. I see Trudeau still gots game.

( Cartoon )