In a gentle reminder that pigeons are not mere “sky rats”, another guest post from Jake Sewall in Holland– Steve. Common Encounters With The [Un]Common Pigeon It’s the pigeon equivalent of “getting back to your roots.” Though domestic pigeons have been bred in an almost unimaginable variety of colors and shapes, feral pigeons – the …
New Dog Regs in New York
Ted Kerasote has an op ed in the NYT (registration required) about new dog regs that, if they stand up, will require all dogs in the New York City area to be on leash all the time. When are we going to learn that perfect safety is impossible, and that attempts to acheive it destroy …
Family News…
Peculiar and Mrs. P have returned from the wilderness, finding rain, opera, and New mexico culture. He also has some comments on Turkish music– I have added to my wish list– and a poster for a movie that really does look like Larissa. Meanwhile, she laments that studying Shakespearean drama may lead to reduced circumstances. …
Shortwingers, Randy Newman, and Gace de la Vigne
People who fly “short- winged hawks”– true hawks (Accipiters), Buteos and Parabuteos– have always gotten little respect from those who fly falcons. Falcons are “prettier” if not always more beautiful, and generally have sweeter dispositions (please, partisans, bear with me– I know there are exceptions on both sides). They have big dark sweet spaniel eyes. …
Mummies, Kurgans, Balbals
The cold dry climate of Central Asia means that it is ideal for preserving bodies and artifacts. I will write more about this subject, both here and, soon, at Registan as well. But meanwhile, Reid sent me this story about a “new” mummy from a kurgan or burial mound in the Altai region of Mongolia. …
“An Anonymous Best”
Here is a classic and utterly anonymous Mauser rifle in the classic older Mauser caliber 7 X 57 mm– or as the English renamed it, .275 Rigby (which used to be part of Jonathan’s email address! It was made on a military action with no maker’s marks whatsoever, not even an initial. The worksmanship is …
Mushroomers 2: The Return of the King
I love all good mushrooms but by far my favorite is the king bolete, Boletus edulis. It is good fresh, dries well, is (at least in our area) HUGE, utterly unmistakable, and when you find one you will find many. Always before we have found it a few weeks after the monsoon began– say, in …
Mushroomers #1
The last month’s rains– virtualy every afternoon and evening– have brought out a bumper crop, of several species. Here are our friends and fellow mycophiles Simon and Della Armijo with a few. They each have half of a “cauliflower”, Sparassis crispa. It is also eaten in Tibet and Nepal. This species is especially good for …
AR, PC 2– Reaction?
Restaurants in Chicago decide to serve foie gras in defiance of the ban. ““This ban is embarrassing Chicago,” said Grant DePorter of Harry Caray’s Restaurant, which dreamed up an appetizer of pan-seared foie gras and scallops ($14.95) and a Vesuvio-style entree pairing foie gras and tenderloin ($33.95) just to buck the new ordinance. “We really …
AR, PC (sigh)
Margory Cohen sends a note about an old film (a good one, based on a novel by Charles Willeford and starring the late Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton) being banned from an Edinburgh film festival for CRUELTY TO ANIMALS. “EDINBURGH, Scotland – The Edinburgh International Film Festival canceled the screening of a movie about …