Roger Ebert on the National Debt

Does anyone read Roger Ebert? I used to watch him on TV, reviewing movies with his svelter pal Gene Siskel, and I enjoyed their show. But its simplistic trademark “Two thumbs up!” rating system and geeky banter didn’t give me any reason to suspect either host might be a great writer. I don’t know about …

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Boletus!

This weekend we found some. Odd– not many, but HUGE, two the size of my head. Although we only got about ten big ones they made up into a generous risotto, a side dish with elk steaks, and two gallon jars of dried ‘shrooms. You can get an idea here: We had so many that …

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In Memoriam: Bear and Bidaari

Bear, one of the last survivors of John Burchard’s Tepe Gawra salukis, died last week. He was 13. Int. Ch. Tepe Gawra Baariz, CC, CM, FCh (“Bear”)(October 9, 1995 – August 13, 2008)photo by Else Karin Rossebø, 10/28/2006 He was a great hunter and always a gentleman. Here he is at Casa Q in his …

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Random Weirdness

Do you believe that these guys have Bigfoot in a freezer? As Tam says: “The find of an Appalachian Bigfoot is especially amazing, since the critter has to be stealthy, living in a neck of the woods that has had sports stadiums and outlet malls since neolithic times.” I mean, I love cryptzoology as well …

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New Links & More

Sorry for light posting. Matt and I have both had deadlines (and his office is moving) and you probably know how busy Reid is already. I am writing some material that COULD lead to something big so posting after today will still be lighter than usual, though I’ll try to get in a review or …

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Decline & Fall

From one terrible speller who nonetheless would not like to be let of the hook, I bring you this: “Fed up with his students’ complete inability to spell common English correctly, a British academic has suggested it may be time to accept ‘variant spellings’ as legitimate…“ If the English are contemplating this, they must truly …

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Crotalia 2: Hot Snake

After the last post LabRat linked in Comments to a pic of the delightful little Crotalus lepidus, the neurotoxic but sweet- natured banded rock rattler. Around here they live at elevations from about 7500 feet and up, in talus slopes, and have a very short “growing season”. Because of this they may be less picky …

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Crotalia

Earlier I sent around this pic of a fat rattler encountered by one of my field survey crews near Rawlins, Wyoming last week. It came just at the time that Chas was reviewing a book written by a rattlesnake bite survivor and reflecting on his own close encounter with one a couple of years ago. …

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“Zoos and Flies”

Dr. Hypercube has an essay up linking zoo architecture, raising poison dart frogs, and how to design an effective (fishing) fly. (The last references my late friend Datus Proper, who died with his waders on while fishing Hyalite Creek). What these pursuits have in common is they all make an effort to communicate something intelligible …

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A Little Garden Blogging

High summer, decent rains, garden roaring. Libby points at the Dahlias springing up from Patrick Porter’s generous gift. This is the first year we have grown Chinese long beans. Insects are everywhere. We keep our cardoon as an ornamental. This year we noticed that it is COVERED with insects, on virtually every leaf– not ones …

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