Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

A Barrel of Cheese-y Deliciousness

I love Love LOVE Utz Cheese Balls! When I had groceries delivered to my house by that Peapod outfit last week, I went pretty much completely berserk and had them bring me one of the giant barrels of Utz Cheeseballs.

I LOVE THEM.

Did I already say that?

Utz cheeseballs are better than Utz cheese puffs. There’s something about the shape that makes them more delicious. I put two in my mouth at a time usually. They start dissolving right away — which is part of their charm — and then they turn into a sort of chewy cheese-y gruel in your mouth. In a good way! In a good way… And they’re WAY better than any of the Cheetos brand stuff — except maybe Cheetos X’s & O’s. But they’re not selling X’s & O’s in any of my local stores anymore, so… they no longer exist for me. (It’s probably just as well. They were overpriced.)

Anyway, so I got this barrel ‘o cheese balls and I’ve been eating a small bowl of them every day. I credit my rapid recovery to Utz Cheese Balls.

Empty Nest

It looks like chick #4 finally took the leap! The chicks will occasionally return to the nesting platform throughout the summer. So… tune in occasionally to see what’s happening!

Once again, I want to thank Minnesota Power and the Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset, Minnesota for providing the nesting space for these falcons and for setting up and maintaining the FalconCam so we can all watch them. Watching the chicks hatch out and grow into adult falcons is a hugely enjoyable part of my spring days — especially since I’ve been sick and haven’t been getting out much. So… THANK YOU, MINNESOTA POWER!

You’ll all enjoy these two pictures below. The first is of the chicks shortly after they hatched. The second is of them shortly before they fledged. I remain amazed that it all happened in only a little over a month!

What a beautiful planet we have — that creatures like these falcons exist! Looking at these little guys gives me hope. I call this “The Grand Persistence of Life”. It’s what makes weeds grow in the cracks of even the busiest super highways.

For those of you who’d like to review the chicks’ growth over the past month, I’ve created a little slide show. You can reach it by either clicking on “Gallery” up above (and then on Falcon Chicks 2006″) or by just clicking here. If you’re at all into birds or nature or just being alive on this glorious world of ours, it’s well worth your while — if I do say so myself.

And I do.

Happy First Day of Summer, by the way.

What Is “Indecency”?

Is Decency Going Down the Tubes?
For starters, the fundamental problem with broadcast television isn’t the occasional outburst of indecency during the hours between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., when the indecency rules apply. It’s the constant avalanche of the inappropriate — from talk shows to reality TV to prime-time dramas.

A Kaiser Family Foundation study last year found that 77 percent of prime-time shows contained sexual content, up from 67 percent in 1998. More than one in 10 shows overall featured “scenes in which sexual intercourse is either depicted or strongly implied.”

So… “indecency” means “sex”??

Apparently so.

If you ever needed clear evidence that the United States is doomed, this has got to be it. When depictions of sexual intercourse disturb a people more than depictions of death by torture — well, that’s a culture beyond redemption.

Get this: The FCC has determined that the word “bullshit” is grossly offensive and presumptively profane. Bullshit??? Bullshit!!! “Dickhead”, on the other hand, is not so bad. (I’m thinking it must be that the FCC guys have been called dickheads so many times that they’ve become immune to it.)

Here’s a short list of things that are REALLY indecent:

• Publicizing photographs of dead people.
• Films of people grieving at a funeral.
• Most “Reality TV”.
• NASCAR [kidding! kidding!]

If the FCC wants to get all twisted over “indecent” television, they ought to be focusing their attention on shows like CSI. Understand, I like CSI. It contains a lot of violence, though. Much of it, in my opinion, gratuitous. The CSI shows should not be watched by children. They’re too violent. Yet, how often do you hear people complaining about that? No… the TV police are focusing all their energy on depictions of sexual intercourse. Jeez… what a fucked up country we live in, when sex is consider offensive and violence is considered acceptable.

Chick #4 Gathers His Courage

Only one falcon chick is left on the nesting platform and, from the look of it, he’ll quite probably be flying before the sun sets over Cohasset, Minnesota. As I was watching this evening, he flapped his wings several times… apparently just trying to work up enough nerve to take off. I would imagine that eventually hunger or boredom must provide enough incentive. While I’m writing this, the chick has hopped off the perch and back onto the platform. He’s still flapping his wings a lot, though!

Hirshman, Steiner on Motherhood

Washington Post Radio has a really good interview with Linda Hirshman and Leslie Morgan Steiner. You’ll remember Linda Hirshman from my post yesterday morning.

It’s interesting. One of the complaints Steiner has about Hirshman is that, though she makes many good points, her “tone” isn’t friendly enough and that’s why many women have attacked her. Ha! Can you believe it? Her “tone”! Hirshman rightly points out that her “tone” has nothing to do with her message. Hirshman believes women are intelligent and capable of understanding an argument that’s based in reason. I certainly hope she’s right about that. I have to admit, though, that when I consider some of the magazines, television shows, and web sites popular with women — well… I despair. If Linda Hirshman’s “tone” really does matter to women, hell — maybe they deserve to be stuck sweeping the floors and changing poopy diapers.

At any rate, Hirshman reiterates her argument that a woman’s “choice” [to stay home and raise children] isn’t really a choice if the children’s father is unwilling to do the same thing. Hirshman’s absolutely right that NOTHING is going to happen if women continue simply demanding that the government force employers to provide more options for people with children. Change has to come from within the structure of the family. Once MEN in large numbers ALSO start demanding change — which they’ll only do when they’re doing a fair share of the childrearing and housekeeping — THEN you’ll see some real improvement. Until then… it’s just women complaining about doing what is, after all, women’s work. [And you all understand I'm being sarcastic with that "women's work" thing, right?]

Anyway. Excellent interview. Linda Hirshman’s an intelligent and fascinating woman and she’s got a lot to say to ALL women — not just those with children. She’s certainly inspired me to take a closer look at my own situation.

Belle the Wonder Dog

A Bite and Bark That Saved a Life
A beagle’s sense of smell is many hundreds of times as strong as a human’s. During her training, Belle was taught to lick Weaver’s nostrils to smell his breath, reading his ketone level. If something isn’t right, Belle knows to start scratching Weaver’s leg, warning him to adjust his sugar levels before a seizure comes on. For a worst-case scenario, Belle was taught to bite down on Weaver’s cellphone — specifically on the number 9, which is programmed to dial 911.

This is just such a good story! So often, the news only seems to be bad. It’s really wonderful to read something like this. I encourage you to read the entire story on the Washington Post site but, if you don’t have time, it goes like this. This guy had a seizure and his dog, Belle, did exactly as she’d been trained. She got his cell phone, contacted 911, and barked into the phone. The paramedics came on time and saved the guy’s life. Now the dog is getting an award.

Isn’t that just the neatest? Doesn’t it make you feel all warm and emotionally gooshy? It does me.

#3 Almost Set For Flight

As I watched, chick #3 went out onto the perch several times but always hopped back to the safety of the nesting platform. One of these times, she’ll just take off flying. I try to imagine what it would be like to be a young falcon preparing for that first flight. They must think of air in the same way we think of the earth beneath our feet — as something reliable.

Where’s The Butter?

American Prospect Online – Homeward Bound
The home-economics trap involves superior female knowledge and superior female sanitation. The solutions are ignorance and dust. Never figure out where the butter is. “Where’s the butter?” Nora Ephron’s legendary riff on marriage begins. In it, a man asks the question when looking directly at the butter container in the refrigerator. “Where’s the butter?” actually means butter my toast, buy the butter, remember when we’re out of butter. Next thing you know you’re quitting your job at the law firm because you’re so busy managing the butter. If women never start playing the household-manager role, the house will be dirty, but the realities of the physical world will trump the pull of gender ideology.

I actually got to this article on the American Prospect site through an editorial by the same writer, Linda Hirshman, on this morning’s Washington Post site.

I think I get Hirshman’s point. As I’ve written here a few times, feminism is supposed to be all about having CHOICES. Women should have the same choices available to men — the choice to work at a career, the choice to stay home and raise kids, blah blah, blah blah. Right? But if men aren’t willing to take on a fully equal share of the childraising and housekeeping, that eliminates some of the freedom from our choice, doesn’t it? I mean… someone’s got to take care of these things. If our husbands aren’t going to do it, then we have to.

Or do we?

Hirshman’s absolutely right when she says that the toughest ‘glass ceiling’ is the one at home. Women want to stay home with the kids. They choose to stay home with the kids. But, ultimately, is that what’s best for them? Is that what’s best for society?

Although it is harder to shatter a ceiling that is also the roof over your head, there is no other choice.

It’s one thing for women in careers to receive equal pay for equal work. It’s quite another for their husbands to do a full 50% of the housework.

Two Down, Two to Go!

It certainly looks to me like just today two of the chicks have fledged!

Any Day Now

Here’s a cool picture from the FalconCam this morning. All four of the young falcons are lined up at the edge of the nesting platform. You can see one of the parents up in the top left corner out in the mist on the long perch. While I was watching, the parent flew off and the Cam recorded the youngsters all turning their heads to watch him go. One of the youngster’s beak opened as she must have been calling after the departing parent.