As a lover of cats, Shakespeare, and ballet, this news story from Turkey is a winner for me. It was definitely a needed counterpoint to most of the news of the world of the day. And perhaps it was a reminder that if all the world is a stage then cats are going to play their part regardless of who is watching. For that their many fans are grateful. And may their non-fans be tolerant of it all!
Wednesday, June 17, 2026
Saturday, June 6, 2026
Poetry Sunday: The False Friends by Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was a twentieth century American writer of poetry, fiction and literary criticism who was especially known for her caustic wit. There's an example of that wit in this poem. I imagine the subject of the poem as a teenager but it could be an older person, I suppose. At any rate, it is someone who mended from an ended romance rather quickly!
by Dorothy Parker
They laid their hands upon my head,
They laid their hands upon my head,
They stroked my cheek and brow;
And time could heal a hurt, they said,
And time could dim a vow.
And they were pitiful and mild
Who whispered to me then,
"The heart that breaks in April, child,
Will mend in May again."
Oh, many a mended heart they knew.
So old they were, and wise.
And little did they have to do
To come to me with lies!
Who flings me silly talk of May
Shall meet a bitter soul;
For June was nearly spent away
Before my heart was whole.
And time could dim a vow.
And they were pitiful and mild
Who whispered to me then,
"The heart that breaks in April, child,
Will mend in May again."
Oh, many a mended heart they knew.
So old they were, and wise.
And little did they have to do
To come to me with lies!
Who flings me silly talk of May
Shall meet a bitter soul;
For June was nearly spent away
Before my heart was whole.
This week in birds - #681
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
*~*~*~*
There's been no tropical storm threat to the Americas so far but there are some Pacific weather systems currently being tracked that pose a potential threat if they develop.
*~*~*~*
The current administration sees no value in maintaining an ocean monitoring system and has ordered it to be dismantled.
*~*~*~*
The nation is a tinderbox, literally, and this wildfire season is worrying wildfire experts.
*~*~*~*
As if we didn't have enough to be worried about, flesh-eating screwworms have been detected in the United States 60 years after they were considered to be eradicated here.
*~*~*~*
Pigeons are famously able to find their way home when released long distances away from it, but how do they do that? Does it have something to do with their liver?
*~*~*~*
One could argue that California and Florida already have more than enough mosquitoes so why would we want to introduce more?
*~*~*~*
Paleontologists have discovered an ancient sea reptile the size of a school bus that they are calling the T. rex of the sea, Tylosaurus rex.
*~*~*~*
Researchers are studying how the engineering choices in the building of the Great Pyramid have helped it survive for 4600 years.
*~*~*~*
Did an ancient ancestor of humans navigate the world on all fours?
*~*~*~*
There is an outbreak of Ebola in Congo and Uganda. Scientists are hoping that some experimental treatments and vaccines might be able to slow its spread.
*~*~*~*
The Okefenokee, a blackwater swamp and Georgia wildlife haven, is under consideration for UNESCO World Heritage status.
*~*~*~*
Mangrove forests fight climate change but sea level rise is a threat to their continued existence.
*~*~*~*
A rare Przewalski’s horse has been born at the Bronx Zoo much to the delight of conservationists. These horses were declared extinct in the wild in the 1960s.
Saturday, May 30, 2026
Poetry Sunday: "The world is a beautiful place" by Lawrence Ferlinghhetti
And now for something completely different from the poems I generally post here. A bit of satire by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.
"The world is a beautiful place"
by Lawrence Ferlinghetti
The world is a beautiful place
to be born into if you don’t mind happiness not always being so very much fun if you don’t mind a touch of hell now and then just when everything is fine because even in heaven they don’t sing all the time The world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t mind some people dying all the time or maybe only starving some of the time which isn’t half so bad if it isn’t you Oh the world is a beautiful place to be born into if you don’t much mind a few dead minds in the higher places or a bomb or two now and then in your upturned faces or such other improprieties as our Name Brand society is prey to with its men of distinction and its men of extinction and its priests and other patrolmen and its various segregations and congressional investigations and other constipations that our fool flesh is heir to Yes the world is the best place of all for a lot of such things as making the fun scene and making the love scene and making the sad scene and singing low songs of having inspirations and walking around looking at everything and smelling flowers and goosing statues and even thinking and kissing people and making babies and wearing pants and waving hats and dancing and going swimming in rivers on picnics in the middle of the summer and just generally ‘living it up’ Yes but then right in the middle of it comes the smiling mortician
This week in birds - #680
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
*~*~*~*
The Monarch butterfly spring migration has now reached as far as Maine and Nova Scotia.
*~*~*~*
Has the risk of global warming been overstated? Scientists are reconsidering.
*~*~*~*
Did you ever wonder why many of the huge predatory dinosaurs had such tiny arms? Scientists think they have figured it out.
*~*~*~*
And which one of those predatory dinosaurs was the biggest?
*~*~*~*
If you have an orange cat, it is probably a male. Here's why.
*~*~*~*
Cities might be thought to be inimical to birds but they can actually prove quite important as stopovers during migration.
*~*~*~*
Here are some amazing pictures of giraffes in the wild.
*~*~*~*
A new study suggests that daddy longlegs actively hunt frogs in South America.
*~*~*~*
How long have humans had a relationship with pigeons? Much longer than previously thought it turns out.
*~*~*~*
Here are some of the best wildlife photographs from previous years.
*~*~*~*
A centuries-old baobab tree in Madagascar is dying. It is a symbol of something larger.
*~*~*~*
Gray whales in the eastern North Pacific are suffering from malnourishment. They are in serious trouble.
*~*~*~*
After years of a dwindling population in the Chesapeake Bay, blue crabs saw a dramatic boost in their numbers last winter.
*~*~*~*
Sunday night will feature the second full moon of the month, known as a blue moon.
Saturday, May 23, 2026
Poetry Sunday: In Perpetual Spring by Amy Gerstler
In my search for a poem to feature this week, I came across this one by a poet I'd never heard of. I still know very little about her but I know I like her poem, especially this last section:
Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds, revives
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.
by Amy Gerstler
Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
Gardens are also good places
to sulk. You pass beds of
spiky voodoo lilies
and trip over the roots
of a sweet gum tree,
in search of medieval
plants whose leaves,
when they drop off
turn into birds
if they fall on land,
and colored carp if they
plop into water.
Suddenly the archetypal
human desire for peace
with every other species
wells up in you. The lion
and the lamb cuddling up.
The snake and the snail, kissing.
Even the prick of the thistle,
queen of the weeds, revives
your secret belief
in perpetual spring,
your faith that for every hurt
there is a leaf to cure it.
This week in birds - #679
A roundup of the week's news of birds and the environment:
The American Bird Conservancy's Bird of the Week is the Red-naped Sapsucker, a bird of the forest that, true to its name, relies upon sap as its staple food source. It prefers deciduous or mixed deciduous-coniferous forests, especially areas with aspen groves or riparian habitat with thin-barked deciduous trees. Its population is increasing in these areas and its conservation status is of least concern at present. This is a bird of North America and can be found in parts of western Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
*~*~*~*
The administration in Washington continues to take a wrecking ball to government services. This week it hit the Preventive Services Task Force, firing two of its members.
*~*~*~*
Do you drink bottled water? The plastic bottle may pose a hazard to your health.
*~*~*~*
Warblers are some of the most beautiful and colorful birds that we have in North America. Here are some hints about how to attract them to your yard.
*~*~*~*
And here are the fifty warbler species that you could potentially see/attract.
*~*~*~*
A powerful El Niño appears to be forming in the Pacific. Its effect could be devastating.
*~*~*~*
The saga of Timmy, the humpbacked whale that had gotten stranded off the German coast, had a sad ending.
*~*~*~*
The Great Pyramid of Giza has stood for 4,600 years, a testament to the skill of ancient Egyptian architects and engineers.
*~*~*~*
Africa is slowly breaking a part. The rift in East Africa may cause that section to break off from the continent sooner than had previously been thought.
*~*~*~*
The war on Iran has placed the world's most endangered big cat, the Asiatic cheetah, in peril.
*~*~*~*
Portland, Oregon, a forward-thinking city, has embraced solar power as a way to reduce emissions and lower energy bills.
*~*~*~*
*~*~*~*
Researchers have found that beluga whales are able to recognize themselves in mirrors.
*~*~*~*
A 2,000-year-old mummy has been found with a papyrus fragment of the Homeric epic, The Iliad, sealed in a clay packet outside its wrappings.
*~*~*~*
A gray wolf has been sighted in Sequoia National Park in California for the first time in over a hundred years, more evidence that California's growing wolf population is expanding into new territory.
*~*~*~*
The Environmental Protection Agency (which seems to have abandoned the "protection" part of its name) is planning to rescind drinking water standards for four of the "forever chemicals".
*~*~*~*
Here's the Weather Channel's outlook for summer temperatures in the United States and, no surprise, it looks like my part of the world may be hotter than usual.
*~*~*~*
And in more news from where I live, this summer solar power will be overtaking coal on the Texas power grid. Might as well take advantage of all that sunlight!
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