Looking for something fun (and historical) to do this weekend?

Fort Crailo is having Native American Heritage Days this Saturday and Sunday



From their Facebook Page:

As part of the state-wide New York Heritage Weekend, Crailo will begin its 2011 season with weekend festivities commemorating Native American history of the Hudson River Valley. Activities include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Native American demonstrations, vendors, crafts for kids of all ages, and a museum open house. Come and experience the culture, history, and heritage of America’s first peoples, while learning about the Dutch in the new museum exhibit.





Fort Crailo in New York - Place Pictures - Pictures



Some of the Events:

Kevin Fuerst: tool making, leather working (Saturday and Sunday)

Dave Cornelius: Native American skills and games (Saturday and Sunday)

John Bigelow: fliny knapping (Saturday)

Dave Bruchac of the Ndakinna Educational Center: storytelling (Sunday)

...Crafts for kids of all ages (Saturday and Sunday)

Museum open house (Saturday and Sunday)



It is going to be a GREAT TIME for the young and the young at heart, especially on a weekend that doesn't look like it is going to be great weather wise!

Make way for ducklings

Remember the book Make Way for Ducklings? I do, mostly because I loved (and still love) one of McCloskey's other books, One Morning in Maine, which makes me think of being a kid, and being in Maine, and my mom loving the book, as well as a bunch of very fond memories, but I digress.

Yesterday, I went for a long hike as well as a long bike ride, and as I was riding my bike on the very bike unfriendly Oakwood Avenue in Troy, I saw a duck guiding her ducklings in and around the shoulder. For those of you who don't know, Oakwood Avenue is a flat straight stretch of road where the speed limit is a posted 45 mph but people routinely exceed it. I was, quite naturally, worried about the ducks.

One of the weird things, was that the duck was not trying to guide her ducklings anywhere in particular but was just walking in a circle around a sewer grate.

I decided to take a look in the grate and as I was walking over, I saw a duckling attempting to jump out.

Then I looked closer.

There were (and you can make one of them out from that picture) eight ducklings trapped in the sewer grate.

I did what comes naturally to me. I freaked out. I called 411 to get Animal Control's number. (For Troy, the number is 518.270.3640 though the voice mail box is full.) I kept calling. Then I called my brother, explaining the situation, and asking him to look for an alternative number. His response..."They are not an endangered species." I did prevail on him to look, and he could only find the aforementioned number above. I kept trying the number I had, and thought about calling TPD but...what would I tell them? Ducklings are in danger? They have a difficult enough job without people like me bothering them with silliness. So...I kept calling and waiting and trying things like putting a stick in the grate so the ducklings could crawl up but, ducklings do not do that.

Eventually, I watched three more jump out, but there were two at the bottom who, apparently, God did not want to live, who had exhausted themselves, and several of their brothers and sisters were getting to that point. There were five or six in the sewer and I did not know what to do.

So, I left, feeling guilty and like a failure.

As I was riding up to see my brother, I saw a Postal Worker. Figuring that they may have a special number for animal control, I stopped her and asked. She looked at me askew and asked "Why?" I explained the situation and there is something about the word ducklings being so close to the word sewer and the word trapped that gets normally jaded and cynical adults to do something different (And I am not implying that this woman was jaded or cynical). I know that is how I reacted. She said that she would make an attempt to contact him through other means.

My guilt was allayed.

After about fifteen minutes with my brother (he was at my grandfather's house), I decided to get back on my bike and ride the Lansingburgh bike path and decided that I would check out the ducklings and the rescue effort.

True to her word, the USPS Carrier had made it work.

Animal Control was there. So was someone from the Humane Society.

The gentleman from Animal Control was calling someone from the City to have the grate popped to save the ducklings.

Amazing. I may have done a good thing.

Thank you to an amazing USPS Carrier, and to the City for being responsive for something so...well...unnecessary yet heartwarming.

Guilty Pleasure Song #4

Who remembers Kon Kan?



Following up Rick Springfield for the other day, this is amazingly bad. It is so bad yet is still memorable.

I remember listening to this while on my paper route, (Can you imagine me with a paper route?) and bopping along.

Things you never knew existed

A waterfall in the midst of an urban hike. The picture does not do it justice.

Print the Legend

I love this film. I love it for some great performances (It is the only film that I like Jimmy Stewart in.) and for the masterful, yet restrained, direction of John Ford. I also love it for the essential lesson of the film.

Every story has nuance.

Anyway, if you have not watched the film recently, give it the time, especially after the death of Osama Bin Laden.

Guilty Pleasure Song #3

This song came out when I was nine and I loved it then.

That I still find myself singing it while in the shower twenty five plus years later I find hard to understand (I was going to try to make a "Hard to Hold" joke but it seemed too difficult.) and more difficult to explain.



So...let's talk about this video for a second...

In the future, on a distant desert world (Arrakis?), humanity is grey faced and enslaved by the lizard people (The Gorn?) to work in a factory where they are shackled and forced to either pull on fire hoses or use two pound sledges to hammer things. And then...there is our hero, Rick Springfield...



Look at him. Not grey at all, and perfectly suited to lead the rebellion with his song and his "futuristic" headset mic. Naturally, someone that "pretty" is the natural leader of the rebellion against the Lizard People, and he is more than amazing because his Tarzan swing and kick was able to make the "Lizard with the Laser Turret" explode.

And then...

After being carried by the adoring grey people, he ends up back on the stage...to finish singing!

So, what was the point of this video?

I think, upon a close viewing, that it had something to do with the end of the Cold War, but...I can't make it work intellectually.

Edit: While I was searching for the static image of Mr. Springfield, I came across this post from io9.com about the 10 greatest post-apocalyptic music videos of all time. I wish I had known about this, but...there are better speculative fiction blogs out there right now (and no, I am not going to share) and io9 has started to bore me.

Charles was a bad man...

I am not a huge fan of Little House, but...I always thought there was something off...now I know.  Charles was trying to provoke a war.  

In reading some of the many books about the Little House novels, McClure learned to further spin out the books' fantasies from the hard reality of the family's life, as in the fact that the little house on the prairie itself was an illegal homestead.

"That's something that was never really mentioned in the books, that Pa really was probably very knowingly occupying illegal land, hoping that it would eventually open up for homesteading. There's kind of no excusing Pa on those grounds," McClure says. "At the same time, I think I appreciated the book for at least asking some of the hard questions. It's Laura herself who dares to ask the question, 'Why are we here anyway if this is the Indians' land?' "

An Author Returns To 'The Little House' : NPR

The Comic Book Movie

What comic book do you want to see on the big screen?

With Thor, Green Lantern and a handful of others coming out this summer, I had a conversation last night about what comic book I wanted to see turned into a movie, and without thinking about, I said...

Invincible

Why?

Because it is the best book out there (and much better than "The Walking Dead" which is also by Kirkman, and I know that some of you will say, "Heresy," but...well...you are wrong.) and think about it for a little bit. It has all the elements of of the classic comic series (lost parent, too much power too soon, aliens, flights and tights, and a big reveal that changes everything) and it could be everything that one could hope for from a summer film.

But, do you have one that you would like to see?

Interesting Links for Tuesday

The Tale(s) of Two People Who Would Be President:
Slate has a piece on Rick Santorum and why his candidacy makes perfect sense while making no sense at all. While NPR has a profile of Michele Bachmann that portrays her as an "undiluted social conservative".

From the I could have told you this would happen file:
The Governator and the Back Sheep of the Kennedy Family separate. Remember, Maria, "Eating's not cheating."

Word of the Day:
According to Urban Dictionary, "My phone's about to die." means:
This is an expression commonly used to signal to another party that either a) you no longer want to text them, or b) you intend on hanging up. This is a smooth way to avoid answering or hearing things from other people.


As I said on Facebook, whoever uses this line is lying. To themselves at the very least. I mean, are you heading out for an evening with an uncharged phone?

And you think your University is corrupt?
CUNY granted Tony Kuschner a honorary degree, and then took it away because he was not sufficiently Pro-Israel but now they are giving it back. It is time to defund CUNY.

Happy Birthday, Little Sister!

My little sister is awesome.

Yes, I understand that "little" may be inappropriate for a woman of twenty nine, but...she will always be eight to me.

But...

She turns 29 today, and she is a wonderful woman. She is funny, smart, and beautiful, and every moment I spend with her is a pleasure. I am glad that we have been able to become friends.

Happy Birthday, Abbey! Love you!

Spring is fully here

It was a beautiful weekend and I am so glad that spring is here.

Don't smother your kids

A word of thanks

I drive most people crazy (and I know this) but there is one person that I drive more crazy than most: my mom.

Yep, I do. I do not know why, but I just do.

Within twenty minutes of being together, this sweet, smart, and kind woman will yell at me.

I am willing to bet everything that I own that it is all my fault.

So, mom, on this Mother's Day, thanks for loving me even though I drive you so very insane.

I love you.