WTF-Beta

Somewhere in the metaverse there is a recording of Johannes Brahms on an old wax cylinder. He is addressing Thomas Edison directly. Edison sent someone to Vienna to record the composer speaking. The recording is really spooky, literally a voice from the other side: "Mr Edison! It's Brahms! Johannes Brahms!" he yells. Then he plays one of his compositions. Which, despite the drawbacks of the primitive recording, really captures his spirit and energy. If you google I'm sure you'll find it.

@Big_Al said in Working Dogs for Conservation:

I wondered if piqué knows about them or the women at the heart of the organization?

They appear to be carpetbaggers. I've spent decades immersed in conservation issues in the region, I've interviewed and/or am friends with all the major players in the state, and I've never heard of a single one of these people. They seem to have little to no connection to Montana or Missoula. And as someone who was on staff of a local non-profit myself in the aughts, I have to wonder if this is some kind of boondoggle (no pun intended).

It works like this: Set up a cool-sounding 501c-3 and then write up a bunch of blather in grant proposals to get angel funders and you're off. The staff is ridiculously huge for a project with such a tiny niche. I find that suspicious.

@ShiroKuro said in Why does this bother me so much?:

it's probably the case that being pregnant would be much less disruptive to the mother than actually being a parent will be for both of them.

Precisely. I think you hit the nail on the head.

The child is not a person but an accessory. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that they are doing this because all their friends are having children and it is considered aspirational. It reminds me a bit of a wealthy woman I know--a contemporary--who would do anything to have her own biological child, but had no interest in adoption. She also had no interest in children, period. Unable to have one of her own, you'd think she'd adopt a dog, but no. Because it isn't about loving and being loved. It's about fitting in, hitting all your markers, and leading the kind of life your friends will be envious of.

Oh, and yes, the NYT always keeps the rights to what it publishes. That is how newspapers work. And I think that now that the story appeared in the paper, they won't use it for MD.

@RealPlayer so back when this actually happened, as soon as I got a whiff of how weird this caller was, I started taking notes on everything he said. It was a lot more weird than what I was able to convey in just this short account (and the Times editor did let me know that one of the reasons they chose my story was because it was so concise). After I hung up with him, I had every intention of submitting this to Metropolitan Diary, but somehow never did.

Every once in a while, I'd read a good Metropolitan Diary story and think again about this call. I still have the notes I took that night. I don't know exactly where they are, but I did come across them the last time we moved. As a memoirist, I hang on to everything like that. My offiice has a walk-in closet filled with handwritten notes in bankers boxes and crates. Most are organized by project, but several boxes are just miscellaneous stuff that was written in a pocket notebook--I never go anywhere without one--and doesn't have a particular project to attach them to.

I love anemones!! And pasque flowers as well.

omg, i so love the tabletop ones! I have a huge collection of 78s that need a victrola! And do you have the wax cylinders?

that looks very much like a house in the same neighborhood a friend of mine owned in the 90s. it could even be the same street, same house. he is a writer, but at the time he was married to his college sweetheart who had become an ad executive and a financial powerhouse. she had an affair with the ceo of pan am and they had an ugly divorce (NY is famous for ugly divorces, as there always has to be fault shown). she got this house (or one very like it) and he got the ranch in montana which he co-owned with a famous news anchor. (they had buck brannaman coming to the ranch to teach horsemanship before he became known as the "horse whisperer.") then he married well again and moved to a townhouse in san francisco.

anyway, the first time i toured the west village house, i was struck by the endless number of stairs. it was a bit much even for me in my 30s, when i was still backpacking in the mountains.

for a lot of people in NYC, a pad like this one is the ultimate.

Not a fan of black and gold decor (is that their football team?) but everything else about it is great. Of course not even close to something we can afford.

I am desperately trying to get my flower beds weeded after too much neglect. Lovely things blooming in them that are hiding in the quack grass--tulips, penstemon, blue flax. The iris have risen above the fray, as have the mixed columbine. Daffodils are done. Great lilac bloom this year--the white volunteers bloomed and the scent was everywhere! They are pretty much on their last legs now. Clematis and roses are about to bloom. I have a wonderful old damask rose I brought over from Missoula that has spread nicely. Scented carnations along the walk. Peonies are coming on. Apple and cherry blossoms--including chokecherry. And our Nanking cherries bloomed profusely this year. I still can't do photos, but you all know what these things look like.

More impressive is our bird population: we had a falcon--a kestrel--fly down our chimney and set up house in the glassed in fireplace. I managed to get him snugged into a towel while Mr Pique held a blanket up over the door to the room. We kept him overnight to make sure he wasn't injured, then with the blessing of a raptor rehabber, released him in the morning to the great excitement of his mate, who was waiting for him.

We have a bluebird nesting outside my office window--little blue eggs, and the male stands guard all day.

The other day I heard a red-tailed hawk screaming in our woods. I looked up and he was hanging on to the top of a pine tree while magpies dive bombed him. He must have been diverting them from a nest.

Tanagers, gray jays, Clark's nutcrackers, flickers, grosbeaks, red-winged blackbirds, and many other birds are everywhere. We try to keep this a cat-free zone, though not always successfully.

Our neighborhood is called The Birdseye, and tonight Mr. Pique observed that the name may have come from this area being a birding paradise.

Bernard, it can't be easy to grow climbing roses where you are. When I had them in Montana, the advice was to dig a ditch alongside the plant, untie it from its trellis, lay it down in the ditch, and then cover it, first with dirt, then with straw or leaves.

I always thought that very impractical, so I just put cages around them and filled with leaves, or piled a hill of dirt at the base. If they are on their own root stock, they'll come back better than ever in the spring. If they are grafted, eventually you will lose them.

Here in Helena I divided up some yellow ramblers from a friend's patch and planted them two springs ago. This year they are going to bloom along my split rail fence--lots of healthy looking buds. I think they are pretty much indestructible, because Helena is a much tougher climate on roses than Missoula, and I didn't do a thing to protect them.

So if you lose yours, look for a cold-hardy variety growing on its own rootstock.

@RealPlayer omgosh you actually saw it on the printed page. I wondered if anyone I know would see it.

I wish I could have somehow conveyed the man's voice. He was being very seductive sounding when he asked me those questions, like maybe he was channeling Marilyn Monroe.

So jealous you have a Victrola! That is a very cool toy!

I forgot to list NPR in my prefered news outlets. Luckily, most of their funding doesn't come from the feds. But still, this is going to hurt.

@Mik said in News sources?:

Did I mention Fox? I put them in the same camp as CBS - completely biased.

Hokay.... good info to have about your ability to use discrimination.

@Mik said in News sources?:

opponents

A study of the facts, and history as written by professional historians makes it pretty clear where the lies and distortions come from. Call me old fashioned, but I don't believe each of us is entitled to our own facts.

@Mik what's the value of reading lies and distortions?

When dogs get lost, they often go feral within minutes. Their primitive instincts for survival are still very much present, despite their relatively luxurious existences these days. A lap dog becomes a wolf again in just about no time.

I learned all about this when I lost my dog.

I'm sure this had to be a very painful decision for you and all your colleagues. Was there no possibility of staying there to resist the administration? I am interested to know a bit more about the calculus, if you feel up to sharing.

The fact that all of you are leaving is a terrifying prospect for the country.