Fish for Friday

Eyjafjallajökull - a "little" volcano - erupting in 2010

Edited by Morris Dean

[Anonymous selections from recent correspondence]

Travel Planning: "Just To Let You All Know...." Excerpt:

... since it's gotten about zero coverage (it gets almost no hits on Google News)....
    It's a beautiful day here in Iceland. The weather is crisp. Clear skies over almost the whole country. Light breezes. Potential erupting globally-super-dangerous volcano. Chirping birds. The usual
    Oh, did I bury the lead that a globally-super-dangerous volcano might be getting ready to go off? Um, yeah, you might want to watch this one just in case....

Yeats as fisher?

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

After a forest fire in Yellowstone National Park, forest rangers began their trek up a mountain to assess the inferno's damage. One ranger found a bird literally petrified in ashes, perched statuesquely on the ground at the base of a tree. Somewhat sickened by the eerie sight, he knocked over the bird with a stick. When he gently struck it, three tiny chicks scurried from under their dead mother's wings. The loving mother, keenly aware of impending disaster, had carried her offspring to the base of the tree and had gathered them under her wings, instinctively knowing that the toxic smoke would rise. She could have flown to safety but had refused to abandon her babies. Then the blaze had arrived and the heat had scorched her small body; the mother had remained steadfast....because she had been willing to die, so those under the cover of her wings would live.

Following Campbell:

If what you are following, however, is your own true adventure, if it is something appropriate to your deep spiritual need or readiness, then magical guides will appear to help you. If you say, 'Everyone’s going on this trip this year, and I’m going too,' then no guides will appear. Your adventure has to be coming right out of your own interior. If you are ready for it, then doors will open where there were no doors before, and where there would not be doors for anyone else. And you must have courage. It’s the call to adventure, which means there is no security, no rules. –Joseph Campbell, from A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Oregon Governor Kitzhaber [last month] made a landmark decision to protect orcas and many more wildlife in the Pacific Northwest from dirty coal. [He] rejected a permit for the Port of Morrow coal export terminal proposed for Boardman, Oregon.
    This decision severely hinders any progress on this dangerous project! While the governor’s decision can be appealed, it would take years—and building a coal dock cannot begin without this permit.
    Over the past few years, the coal industry has quietly advanced plans to ship U.S. coal to foreign markets from ports along the west coast. [Last month]’s victory shows the power of the tens of thousands of wildlife advocates like you who are speaking out to stop dirty coal!

The items below were posted on an Australian tourism website, and the answers are the actual responses by the website officials, who obviously have a great sense of humor (not to mention a low tolerance threshold for cretins!)

Q: Are there supermarkets in Sydney and is milk available all year round? (Germany)
    A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of vegan hunter/gatherers. Milk is illegal.

Q: Please send a list of all doctors in Australia who can Dispense rattlesnake serum. (USA)
    A: Rattlesnakes live in A-mer-ica, which is where YOU come from. All Australian snakes are perfectly harmless, can be safely handled, and make good pets.

Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Australia, but I forget its name. It's a kind of bear and lives in trees. (USA)
    A: It's called a Drop Bear. They are so called because they drop out of gum trees and eat the brains of anyone walking underneath them.
    You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.

The Best News for Progressives in 2014: 62% of the American people oppose the subsidies that the federal government gives to oil, gas and coal companies. – Reason-Rupe/ Princeton Survey Research Associates International
    65% favor setting stricter emission limits on power plants in order to address climate change. –
Pew Research Center
    56% of House Republicans deny the basic science behind climate change.
    72 percent of statements about climate change on Fox News were misleading, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
    The American people aren't falling for it. The news media may think we're stupid, but the polls show otherwise.
    The Populist Majority is a new project from the Campaign for America's Future.

If there's one thing worse, when you're sober, than being at a party [that is, being around a bunch of drunk people], it's having someone at your party who's sober.

Limerick of the week:

There once was a hiker from Ta-ta-tum
who often would fall on his stumbly bum.
    On his very last hike,
    a disaster did strike,
and he fell all the way to Kingdom Come.

Copyright © 2014 by Morris Dean