About The Other Chicks…
And about the other chicks…. The Sports Illustrated “swimsuit issue” recently came. A subscriber may choose to skip that issue—for ethical reasons or whatever—but I choose not to (I have no ethics that tender anyway) because I send it to my brother-in-law, a nurse and a fireman, both at once, who then is able to celebrate his birthday with the...
Missing The Chicks
I miss the chicks. Nothing to do with the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue; that’s got more hot chicks than a KFC convention. No, I mean real, live “Peeps”, the little , fluffy yellow (and sometimes other miscellaneous colors, especially if they’re just on the edge of getting real feathers) fuzzies that used to occasionally appear under the auspices of Stark...
A Load Off My Mind
Well, that’s a load off my mind! There was a piece in the AB-J and there have been subsequent mentions on NPR and even online about the possibility of a new “snack sensation” to be known as “lady Doritos”. Apparently, a clueless CEO at overeating icon, Pepsico, said in a podcast that women, unlike men, don’t like to lick their...
“Sometimes when I’m online, a website will ask me to type in a bunch of weird letters and numbers, or pick out all the pictures that have a car...
“Sometimes when I’m online, a website will ask me to type in a bunch of weird letters and numbers, or pick out all the pictures that have a car or a street sign, or just click box that says ‘I’m not a robot’ before it lets me go any further. Why does this happen?” These are a few different examples...
Sentinels in the Snow
Viewing the winter landscape does not have the brilliant reds, oranges, and yellows of fall. It does not have the subtle shades of green we see in the summer. It looks naked, barren, and bleak. But tucked away along streams and rivers is one magnificent tree that really struts it stuff even on the bleakest winter day; the North...
Don’t Look Now
Don’t look now, but the crazy stuff is still out there…and I don’t mean snow. That fickle pair, Punxsutawney Phil and Buckeye Chuck have predicted six more weeks of winter, so it’s pretty “old hat” by now ( a phrase that has transitioned from meaning something fairly pornographic in the 1700’s to just being considered a slangy way of...
Random Observations
A Word to the Wise…. There’s a new restaurant –reported on in The New Yorker—that you might want to think twice about patronizing this month (or any other month, if you ask me ). It’s in Paris, for one thing, not exactly on our regular circuit of dining experiences (anyplace over twenty miles away seldom makes the cut), but...
Kool Porch Kitties
Well, it had to happen. The porch kitties now have a fan base. Can a world tour be far behind? As you may have noticed, it’s been pretty d----d cold outside lately. And despite the heated, insulated luxury boxes on the front porch for the cats, there were some temperature-related issues confronting me and the denizens of the aforementioned boxes,...
Homeowners: Your House Must Be Sold TWICE!
In today’s housing market, where supply is very low and demand is very high, home values are increasing rapidly. Many experts are projecting that home values could appreciate by another 5%+ over the next twelve months. One major challenge in such a market is the bank appraisal. If prices are surging, it is difficult for appraisers to find adequate,...
Cool Critters
The porch kitties seem to have rediscovered the charms of the heated kitty condos available to them here at the manse. I now have three regulars to greet me in the morning (At about 6:00a.m., so you know what the temperature has been like) when they get their breakfast. There’s I.B.M.—Irresponsibly Bad Mamma, Moppet (named like a cow we...
Chipmunks
For those of you who are old enough to remember the cartoon, Alvin and the Chipmunks, they were a trio of brothers who got into all sorts of mischief; the cartoon characters were not too far off from the real thing. Chipmunks are known for eating flower bulbs, getting into bird feeders, and making holes all over your yard,...
Ain’t That The Way
Ain’t that just the way…. There I am, driving home from a place that I’ve never been before, after dark, with directions quite different from the ones that got me there, those, thankfully, having been researched by an usher at church (during the service?); Divine Providence all the way, considering the amount of construction going on in the neighborhood—potholes anyone?...
Haunts At Home
With Halloween coming up and all, I think that I’ll have to admit that I think that the house seems to be haunted. Not just by the bats who make periodic appearances (Though not—can I hear some knocking on wood out there—just lately) thupp-thupping around inside the place, from living room to dining room to kitchen and...
The Unappreciated….Mosses and Lichens
I know several people who work tirelessly in the background doing all the hard and dirty work, making sure the day to day activities get done, and keeping things running; but NEVER GET THE CREDIT! Never get a ‘that a boy” or “great job”. This is the case with two members of the plant kingdom, mosses and lichens. This...
The Return of Champ
“Home is the sailor, home from sea, and the hunter home from the hill.” With apologies to Robert Louis Stevenson, I believe that we can remove the sea from consideration in this case (Camp Creek down behind the back yard hardly qualifies as anything like “the bounding main.” It doesn’t even come up to the level of Lake Erie.),...
Horticultural Report—Summer, 2017
Well, the ferns and the jack-in-the-pulpits were riotous this year and some even had to have some of their fronds evicted from the cozy jungle which they had created. There was green stuff everywhere! And moss!? The water feature/rock with a modest up-spout of gurgling liquid is burbling away but the water is encouraging a bumper growth of really...
“How do you treat a chigger bite? What causes it?”
It turns out that there is no one creature called a chigger – the word actually refers to the larval stage of a trombiculid mite. The mites are usually reddish in color and are also known as red bugs, harvest mites, and berry bugs. One of our patrons had heard that chiggers burrowed into the skin or laid eggs in...
Lights Out!
And speaking of eclipses…. Isn’t everyone? It’s all over the place, and with pretty good reason, since it’s been quite some time—38 years isn’t it—since the last total eclipse of the sun was visible over significant portions of the United States. It’s also the first since 1918 to be visible from coast to coast, AND the first since 1776 to...
Dragons
Who needs to watch Game of Thrones to see dragons, just go out to the nearest meadow, stream or pond and you will be amazed to see all sorts of dragons flying around…dragonflies that is. Worldwide there are more than 5,000 known species of dragonflies, all of which, along with damselflies, belong to the order Odonata, which means “toothed...
The Wheels On The Bus… Part III
And now, as the sun sets slowly in the West…. End of competition and return to God’s country (Garrettsville, in case you didn’t recognize the description). The contests, across so many topics and fields, illuminated our strong points and our areas ripe for improvement. All team members made some critical contributions—math, nineteenth century literature, scientific notation, historical events, whatever—at some...
The Wheels On The Bus…
The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round. The wheels on the bus go…. Wait! We’re not moving. So that was one part of the saga. Wait until you hear the rest of it. Our intrepid band of Quiz Masters (James A. Garfield’s Academic Challenge team) was off to...
Flipped WHAT Bird?!?!
All of a sudden the avian population seems to be catching my attention. First it was the “sitting duck” mamma down at the Rite Aid in the landscape mulch, then it was the geese and goslings, duck and ducklings down on the creek behind the house, then it was the blue heron below the dam, which has been replaced...
That Red Buckeye Is A Show Off!
My Red Buckeye is showing off this year—full of blossoms and looking like it ought to be the guest star at the Home & Flower Show. Stop in some time and take a look. And if you’re walking around the estate, say “Hello” to the critter who seems to me to be the one munching up my...
Gone, But NOT Forgotten
Gone, but not forgotten…that’s my Bob, a classic over-achiever. How he became afflicted with liver disease--he wasn’t much of a drinker—is still a mystery to me, but he did use up what were left of his nine lives trying to fight it off. Not that he wasn’t apt to milk any situation for all it was worth to get what...
The machines are out to get me!
Does a computer count as a machine or a device? Matters not, they’re after me. So I’m sitting at the computer typing away at my much-anticipated column for this week, when, out of the blue—or whatever color cyberspace is nowadays—the screen went black (that color I know) and totally unresponsive. I wiggled and jiggled various plugs and...
How old do you think Nelson Ledges is?
Understanding the concept of time in seconds, minutes, days, years, and even centuries is easy for us to comprehend. However, the concept of geologic time is very hard for most of us to wrap our brain around. How can you put into perspective 4.6 billion years, the estimated age of the earth? Let’s try. It would take you...
A Rash of Trash
Spring having sprung and all that, could I comment upon the sad indication that numerous persons hereabouts in the area are taking the opportunity to come down with a bad case of illiteracy? I am referring to the piles of stuff—junk would be a more accurate description but I’m attempting to be kind—that are appearing outside the various...
Weather or Not…
Don’t look now, but it seems to me that as far as weather predictions go, The Old Farmer’s Almanac has crashed and burned in its outlook for February. And in the ruins might be found the remains of a groundhog or two—Punxsutawney Phil and Buckeye Chuck, perhaps—who had stepped out for a snowball fight during the six more...
“Honesty is the best policy.”
I had always thought this oft-repeated nugget of advice from my father was fairly obvious. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell the truth, but of course the alternative is immoral, indefensible and unwise. Yet, in the current political climate where policy has promoted the dissemination of alternative facts, hyperbole and misrepresentation, the obvious reminder bears repeating. If we expect honesty from...
Cats Up To No Good
Well, it’s finally here! My sure-fire, brass-bound, copper-bottomed, iron-clad, nickel-plated, sterling silver, gold standard (Had enough of the metallics?) opportunity to live in the manner to which I’d like to become accustomed has arrived. Yes! Reading through one of my weekly newsmagazine—appropriately enough named The Week—I came across an item about an entrepreneur, Lainey Morse, in Oregon who...
