Fish for Friday

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

Your blog has frequently shined light on the predation of species, but usually occurring in Africa. What about Europe? What about its "tradition of often illegal songbird hunting, where small migrating birds are a delicacy? The glue and net traps all over the Mediterranean, France, and the Near East kill close to 30 million birds every year and threaten the survival of some kinds of birds," according to the documentary, Emptying the Skies, for which an "Elon professor wins award for first full-length documentary."
    See also Jonathan Franzen's National Geographic article, "Last Song for Migrating Birds."

Madison Kimrey inspired hundreds at Moral Monday this week. Here is a video of her speech:

    And a photo to which she added one of her favorite quotes from the speech:

Co-Ops are among the best examples of citizen democracy in America: "5 Reasons Co-Ops Are So Awesome." My family has benefited from their access to low-cost credit since the 1950s. Starting as a response to the Great Depression, they have multiplied and evolved into the best resort for those of us who want to keep the 1%'s hands out of our pockets. As the commercial says, "try it, you'll like it."

Fox News's anything-but fair and balanced "reporting" inspired the parodic phrase "Faux News" years ago. Its manifest mission is to serve as a jeer-leader...against liberals, Democrats, Obamacare, and Obama himself...for example. A Fox News watcher tells me that "the great increase in our insurance premium is because of Obamacare, plain and simple." She "knows" because she has heard Fox News say it night after night.

Tea-bag Party:

Tea bags are useful:

The real reason for our worst recovery on record has nothing to do with regulation or Obamacare. It's "America’s surging inequality." [If you missed the inequality "fish" we led off with last week, it's not too late to check it out.]

Robert Reich

Those who have reaped the biggest personal gains from predatory lending practices and sales of mortgage-backed securities won't face criminal charges. And "Struggling homeowners won't see a dime of the billions of dollars the companies are being fined."

I can confirm indirectly Moto's observation that vegan women smell better than carnivorous women: I haven't noticed any particular aroma with vegan women but no aroma is better than the aroma of meat eaters. Ketosis occurs when there is insufficient carbohydrate intake (Atkins type diets) to keep an adequate level of glycogen stored in the liver. Ketosis = Halitosis. Sulfur containing amino acids, particularly methionine,also contribute greatly to halitosis and "tuna provides 12 times more methonine than sweet potatoes - giving a whole new understanding of 'fish farts'.” Aren't you glad you asked?

I've heard from a Chess Grandmaster that the number of legal chess positions is 10⁴⁰, and the number of possible chess games is about 10¹²⁰. I'm not sure how many atoms are predicted to be in the known universe, but that's certainly an astronomical number of chess positions! [According to the site Universe Today:

The number of atoms in the entire observable universe is estimated to be within the range of 10⁷⁸ to 10⁸². We’ve added the word "observable" because we realize that there are really many things to discover about the entire universe so, basically, that range back there is only an estimate based upon what we currently know.]

Is your daughter-in-law still interested in Walt Disney stuff? I recently acquired a large collection of Walt Disney collectibles from the 1960s through '80s. I have in my retail shop in Hillsborough [North Carolina] about 600 cubic foot of Disney items from that era still new in box. My website is paulseclecticworld.com/. If they want, anyone interested can go from there to my eBay store, and from there click on any subcategories, from Antiques & Collectibles to Disney to Other.

RIP Lou Reed, March 2, 1942 – October 27, 2013:

Standing on the corner
Suitcase is in my hand...
I'm in a rock 'n' roll band

    Someone once speculated that Reed was in actual fact a performance artist, who just pretended to be a bad rocker. Or you can think of him as a pioneer who, in the era of art rock, took us back to the crude rude roots of rock 'n roll. Either way, gone too damn soon.
    For more about Lou Reed:

• "David Bowie leads tributes to 'master' Lou Reed"
• "How Patti Smith remembers her good friend Lou Reed"

"You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone.'" -Joni Mitchell. Tony Judt was one of the most insightful historians of the past century. The essay "Edge People" is from his final book, The Memory Chalet, written in 2009 when he was dying from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This volume constitutes the best insight to his qualities as a thinker, as had Edward Said's Humanism and Democratic Criticism for that remarkable mind.

John Pike received threats
after footage went viral

The State of California looked foolish enough when American media picked up this story: "Officer Who Pepper Sprayed Peaceful Protesters Receiving Larger Settlement Than His Victims." Then the BBC and other international media picked it up: "Pepper spray campus police officer awarded compensation."

California has learned a lot in its years of dealing with a legal form of marijuana, but there are a lot of states that are just now going through it, and there are things they need to know: "Few Problems with Cannabis for California."

Kids hear the darnedest things: "Gladly the Cross-Eyed Bear." An old hymn?

Feline photos:

Peanut hug:

Not all of the candy changed hands last night.

Limerick of the Week:

If the plural of tooth is teeth,
why isn't booth's plural beeth?
    If we add one to goose,
    and another to moose,
why two geese but not two meese?

_______________
Copyright © 2013 by Morris Dean

Comment box is located below