At Steve’s request I’ll start October off with a cranky “gloom and doom” post. After all, I haven’t done one since I detailed the horrors of ice cream. Hard as it may be to believe (or not), a school district in New York state has a policy that doesn’t allow students to walk or ride …
Author: Reid Farmer
Sad News
Michael Blowhard has announced that he is hanging up his blogging spurs. All of us here at Querencia owe him thanks for the many kindnesses he has shown this blog. I was lucky enough to share an unforgettable lunch with Michael and his wife three years ago. It just won’t be the same.
San Juan Islands
Connie and I recently returned from a trip to northwestern Washington, where we attended our niece’s wedding. Connie has three older brothers who live in that part of the state, Terry in Seattle, Tim in Bellingham, and Jeff in the countryside east of Blaine. Terry had recently bought a small farm on Lopez Island, out …
Suburban Elk
We were totally surprised this morning to see these two bull elk as we were driving into work. This was quite near our office, which is in west suburban Denver (Lakewood, for those who know) on the edge of the Front Range foothills. There are countless mule deer around here, but elk rarely come this …
Determination of Fossil Feather Color
This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a while. NY Times tells of a recent paper describing how paleontologists have examined bird fossils with an electron microscope and discovered traces of melanosomes. These are pigment structures that give feathers their colors. One 47 million year old sample proved to have dark glossy …
Eagle Repository
Today’s Denver Post has a short article on the National Eagle Repository here in town complete with creepy picture. Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940, it’s illegal to kill Bald or Golden eagles or to possess any feathers or other body parts. Native Americans are allowed to possess them for use …
Where There’s Smoke
We walked out of work yesterday afternoon and I immediately smelled smoke in the air. I was pretty sure I hadn’t seen any local fires mentioned in the news and that proved correct. The smoke and haze is coming from the big fires in Southern California about 900 miles away. A tribute to the power …
The Horror of Ice Cream
I found this recent NY Times article twisted even by the standards of the Times. Entitled “When Parents Scream Against Ice Cream”, it details the efforts of parents in a number of cities to ban summertime ice cream vendors from parks or even entire neighborhoods. The basic premises are that ice cream is a sugary …
Party Animal
I just want you all to know that I am inordinately proud of the fact that I have degrees from two (#11 and #19) of the universities on this year’s Top Twenty Party Schools list. Matt, I am shocked that LSU didn’t make the cut. What’s wrong with those kids in Baton Rouge?
Prehistoric Environmental Destruction
One more nail gets driven into the coffin of the “ecological Indian”, you know that guy who lived in complete harmony with nature before the Europeans arrived here in 1492. The NY Times summarizes a recent study by Torben Rick (Smithsonian Institution) and Jon Erlandson (U. of Oregon) that documents evidence of sometimes serious environmental …