Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Movie of Lake Superior

Okay, so my new digital camera (a Kodak something-or-other, not an expensive camera) will also take little movies. So, I shot a couple short clips of Lake Superior as seen from our cabin at Bob’s Cabins in Two Harbors. I combined the clips into one short film. It’s about 3.2 MB so… unless you’ve got a high-speed connection (or a lot of patience), it’s probably not worth your while to download.

It’s pretty neat, though, I think. The first clip is from this past Tuesday when the lake was really calm. The second clip is from the very next day when a storm was coming in. The waves got even more intense as the night went on, by the way. Truly, by nightfall they were high enough that a person could go surfing on them if he wanted. (A really crazy person, that is.)

Anyway, click here if you want to see the movie:

Vacation/Bear Photos Now Uploaded!!

Click here or just go up to the top of the screen and click on “Vacation 2005″ under “Gallery”.

I have LOTS of pictures uploaded, but they’re all nicely arranged into bite-sized slide shows of about 16 or 17 pictures each. If you’re a person who’s particularly interested in seeing what our stay at the North American Bear Center was like, look for the slides that say BEARS!

I’ll write more about our trip in the coming days (and possibly weeks, as things occur to me.) Suffice it to say, for the time being, we’ve had a really wonderful time.

We’re in Duluth again for the last couple days of our trip. Tomorrow we’ll be taking a 6-hour train trip along the North Shore of Lake Superior and then, on Saturday, it’s back home.

The bear in the picture above is named June. She’s the nicest bear in Minnesota. You’ll learn more about her — and her cubs! — by looking at the slide show.

India PalaceIn Duluth, Minnesota

I didn’t eat the saag paneer — cooked spinach weirds me out — but I did have the malai kofta (also mentioned in this Duluth News Tribune review) and it was truly excellent. I’m not kidding, it was the best malai kofta I’ve ever had. The koftas themselves were very good but it was the sauce they were in that was truly fabulous. It was made with cream (I think) and really wonderful spices and had cashews in it. It wasn’t too heavy and the spiciness was just right. The waitress had asked how spicy I wanted it and I’d said “medium to hot–somewhere in between”.

It was soooooo good! And the rice that came with it was really perfect, too. Not at all gummy. Nice separate grains.

We also had naan (an Indian flat bread) that was very nicely done. As an appetizer, we had samosas. We’re accustomed to samosas that are more chunky inside with distinct pieces of potato. These were made with more of a pureed potato mix inside. They were very tasty even though they were a bit different. The samosas were served with a sweet tamarind sauce and a VERY nicely done green chutney. The green stuff was very fresh tasting and not too hot. Mmmmm!

I had a nice big bottle of Taj Mahal beer with my meal and Mark had a generously-sized mango lassi.

I highly recommend India Palace. It was rather expensive — more than we pay even in DC — but the food was really significantly better than the usual Indian fair so we felt it was worth paying extra.

Vacation 2005, Day 1

I’ve uploaded the photos for Day 1 of our vacation: Terry & Lyle’s House. Terry and Lyle live in Wayzata, Minnesota — on Lake Minnetonka, west of Minneapolis. They were kind enough to put us up for the night. They also hosted a lovely barbecue and invited my brother Butch and his “significant other”, Sheila. I hadn’t seen any of these people in a couple years, so… It was nice.

Link to the photos over on the right — under “photo galleries”.

If You’re Really Into Falcons

Peregrine Falcons – Books – Sierra Club: “For thousands of years, humans have admired, even revered, the peregrine falcon for its hunting skill, its mastery of the skies, its riveting gaze. To ancient Egyptians, who sometimes mummified falcons, these creatures were sacred, occupying an important place in the culture’s pantheon. Humanity’s devotion to this marvelous raptor also spawned the art of falconry, as falconers and spectators stood awed at the peregrine’s ability to intercept another bird in midair at nearly 200 miles per hour. But the industrial age almost eliminated the falcon, as the widespread use of the pesticide DDT contaminated the bird’s food chain. Happily, in the twenty-five years since DDT was banned, the peregrine has come back from the brink of extinction; the effort to save the species stands as one of the great success stories of the environmental movement. Yet the pesticide is still used abroad, and other chemicals pose new, serious threats.”

This book, published by the Sierra Club, looks like something a person ought to have in their library. I don’t have this book. Gifts are happily accepted.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

Joe Conason is deeply disturbed that the Washington Post and the New York Times didn’t think the Downing Street memo was big enough news to bother reporting much about.

George Bush is a liar and there’s proof of it.

Yawn.

Maybe the real story is this: George Bush is a liar and there’s proof of it and the average American doesn’t really give a shit.

I think most of us have always assumed that politicians lie. It used to be though — and I don’t think I’m just imagining this — that we thought they’d tell the truth when it came down to the REALLY important stuff. Stuff like going to war, for example. Sure, they might spin the truth a little bit. They wouldn’t tell outright lies, though. Would they? Maybe they would. The thing is, we expected them to tell the truth about the important stuff.

Now we don’t even expect it.

Worse — and this is the really creepy part — many of us apparently don’t even care.

There’s your real news story, Joe Conason.

Falcon Chick Photo Gallery

I’ve heard from a few of you that you’ve enjoyed the pictures of the falcon chicks. Me too! So, I’ve put together a “slide show” of all the falcon chick pictures I’ve posted here over the past month.

Over on the right…under “photo galleries”. There ‘ya go.

It’s amazing how fast they grew, isn’t it?

From cute-little-white-ball-of-fuzz

to flying-pigeon-death-machine

…all in a single month’s time!

I hope you all enjoy the photos.

(And, many thanks to Minnesota Power for not only providing the nesting platform on their stack in Cohasset, but for also making the FalconCam available.)

Liberty and Justice for All

To Senator George Allen, Senator John Warner, and Representative Frank Wolf:

You can easily send a letter like this to your senators and representatives, too. Just click below:

People like that scare the hell out of me. I mean… we’ve all seen what they’re capable of, right?

It’s easy to understand how some people might come to the conclusion that these detainees — these terrorists — don’t deserve the same kinds of rights we grant to citizens guilty of plain old garden-variety crimes here in the states. (Much less, the many protections we have in place for people who are only suspected of some crime but who haven’t yet gone to trial!)

Here’s the thing, though:

Freedom and democracy are not served by denying the civil rights of those who would destroy us.

If we truly want to show the rest of the world how great democracy is (and it is great!), we have to apply it to every situation. We have to show them that democracy really works. That it really is all about being fair and open and honest.

We’ve got to close down those “secret prisons.” We’ve got to name the people we’ve got in custody, officially charge them with crimes (or set them free), provide them with legal counsel, treat them humanely while they’re awaiting trial, and we’ve got to show them what democracy is all about.

We’ve got to show them justice.

Empty Nest

Minnesota Power Falcon Cam
It’s looking like all three falcon chicks have now fledged! This morning, I happened to tune in to the FalconCam just as one of them was taking off from the nesting platform. (The first picture below.) They’ll still come back to roost at night and to occasionally rest during the day, but they’ll be out and about learning adult falcon skills for the rest of the summer.

Hasn’t this been really neat?

I’ll continue checking in with them from time to time during the summer and if I see anything interesting, I’ll post about it.

Monsters

And so they dehydrated her to death.

I’d do better by one of my cats.

More and more I’ve come to wonder what the real harm would have been to let Terri Schiavo’s parents keep her alive. She could feel neither pain nor pleasure. Sure, it’s a little on the monstrous side to keep a body alive under those circumstances but it’s certainly no more monstrous than depriving the body of water and food and just waiting around for it to die.