Year: 2024

Here Come the Snakes, Here Come the Snakes

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

810+ Reticulated Python Stock Photos, Pictures & Royalty ...

“But he was little and cute when I bought him!”

Covering the usual political nooze was oppressing my spirit this afternoon, I didn’t know what to write… and then my sister, Alice, called and suggested (pause) this.

Puerto Rico is being overrun with great big snakes that don’t belong there (https://www.vox.com/24144224/invasive-species-snakes-puerto-rico): notably the reticulated python (can grow to 30 feet long, biggest snake in the world), boa constrictor, and ball python.

The reticulated python has been known to swallow human beings. It doesn’t happen often, but people get a little edgy about it.

The big problem is the non-native snakes gobbling up native birds–and people’s cats and dogs–to the point where some of these birds might go extinct. No one has done anything about it.

Thirty-foot-long reticulated python, having pulled the family dog out of the dog-house, still hungry, finds the house’s back door left open and slithers eagerly into the kitchen…

Maybe they’d better make it their business to do something about it.

Yeesh, what a world!

Here We Go Again: ‘Eat Bugs!’

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13-year, 17-year cicadas to return to Illinois, Indiana this spring - CBS Chicago

Does this image ring your dinner bell?

I’m not going to try to guess why leftids get turned on by the idea of people eating insects. They just do.

In various parts of the country this summer, cicadas (aka “locusts”) by the millions, if not billions, will emerge from 17 years underground to mate and lay their eggs. And the usual suspects are out there urging you to eat these bugs (https://health.osu.edu/wellness/exercise-and-nutrition/cooking-cicadas).

Just “saute them for a minute or two” and bob’s your uncle.

But don’t eat them if you’re allergic to sea food.

People eating cicadas are not going to Save The Planet.

I don’t care what they taste like. They’re bugs. I once served them to my monitor lizard and even she was grossed out. Can’t say I blamed her!

Here I Am Again

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Man With Twisted Legs Stock Illustration - Download Image Now - Twisted, Adult, Adults Only

Physical therapy again this morning. This time they got a few whoops and groans out of me, twisting my leg, stretching it, kneading my hip–aagh! Patty says I’m already walking better: she has a better view of it than I do, so I believe her.

Next on the docket, Ozias, Prince Enthroned. I managed four pages today before it just got too flamin’ hot. Today the good guys hit the bad guys with a satire that lowered the approval ratings. As for our own political scene, where’s Jonathan Swift when you really need him?

Now I need to generate a couple more blog posts. To those who say I work too hard, well, what else am I here for? The book has to be finished before the winter comes along to shut me down again. And after that comes Ozias, King Betrayed. 

Meanwhile, I just got out of my chair without having to hold onto the table, so that’s a base hit for my side.

Onward!

‘So Dinosaurs Weren’t Real?’ (2015)

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Scientists say new dinosaur species is largest found in Australia - BBC News

I guess if you’re gonna hoax, you might as well hoax big.

Just to suggest that the Far Left Crazy doesn’t have a monopoly on goofiness, we point to Dinosaur Denial–the insistence that dinosaurs never actually existed and all the dinosaur fossils were fabricated to create a hoax of unimaginable proportions.

So Dinosaurs Weren’t Real?

I haven’t heard much Dino Denial lately, not that I’m listening. You wonder: did Dino Denial just go away, or was it censored into silence?

You can find fossils, if you know where to look. Anybody can. I’ve done it myself.

I do not believe a world-wild conspiracy planted them where I found them.

By Request, ‘When the Saints Go Marching In’

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Requested by Erlene, and she didn’t have to ask twice–When the Saints Go Marching In, featuring the legendary Louis Armstrong (betcha thought I was gonna say “iconic”!). I can’t help thinking of him every time I hear this classic hymn.

 

We Call It Puppy Love

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How can the cat resist this huggable puppy? She keeps playing hard to get; meanwhile, it’s obvious the puppy is in love with her. Do you think he’ll eventually win her over? I think she’s beginning to thaw…

Mother Moose Kills Would-Be Photographer

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Moose Calves | Chugach National Forest, Alaska | Photos by ...

They’re not as peaceful as they look.

I’ve never heard of a moose fatally attacking any human being, but apparently it does happen occasionally.

A mother moose with two newborn calves recently attacked and killed a man trying to take their picture (https://time.com/6980392/moose-kills-alaska-man-calves/). The man’s companion ran away and didn’t see the incident.

You see videos of moose in Alaska stopping traffic, getting tangled up in residents’ Christmas lights, etc. Well, I saw a deer in our parking lot, first thing this morning. No interaction was forthcoming.

I had always thought of moose as basically peaceful creatures; but my father once told me, Don’t mess around with wild animals, period. The thought of a full-grown moose on the rampage is a daunting one.

The last moose attack, before this one, was touched off by some dindle throwing snowballs at the moose. He didn’t survive that caper.

You’re always better off respecting wild animals’ space. Especially when they’re big and strong enough to wipe you out.

I See It… But You Don’t?

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Rubin's vase (sometimes referred to as "The Two Face, One ...

Is it a black vase, or two white faces? Classic optical illusion!

(This post is a preview of my weekly Newswithviews column.)

It was a clear plastic trash bag full of, well, trash. I knew that. But sitting outside today, on my special chair, I saw it as a face. A weird face: big goggly eyes, fishy mouth, shiny silver earring. Look away, look back–and that face was still there.

I asked my wife to take a look. She saw it, too. Same as the face I saw. I also asked my next-door neighbor–and she couldn’t see any kind of face at all. Same information, different results.

Human nature is very hard to understand.

Oh, Boy! DIY Medicine!

Posted By: leeduigon(patty)Posted On:

Bean at a Hospital | Funny Clips | Mr Bean Official

All right, maybe it’s not as bad as having Mr. Bean for your doctor…

I went to the labs today, expecting to have a certain test ordered by my doctor. The nurse came out, took my prescription slip, and came back in 30 seconds with a “kit” (I guess you’d call it a kit) for doing the test yourself, at home.

I am not a fan of D.I.Y. medicine. To me it looks like an attempt to shift responsibility to the patient. “Well, we told him how to do it, we can’t help it if he fonged it up!”

What’s next–Do-It-Yourself abdominal surgery? “Each kit contains a brand-new scalpel–and enough anesthetic to knock out a water buffalo!” Is that where we’re headed?

I am distracted, and have no idea what to put on this blog today.

‘Now That’s a Stupid Question!’ (2017)

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See the source image

So what did you guys learn in clown school? How to be CPA’s?

You’ve got to wonder about “journalists” and what they learn in journalism school.

New York’s Thanksgiving Day parade: well-paid, well-dressed noozie asks a couple of clowns, “What did you learn at clown school?”

Now That’s a Stupid Question!

Sheesh. What’s Smokey the Bear’s middle name? Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb? Where do they hold the New York City Thanksgiving Day Parade? [Uh… Spain?]

That we learn anything at all from “news reporting” looks increasingly miraculous.