Aha Moment

It was Saturday morning. I'm lying in bed garnering enthusiasm to exercise when Motorhead joins me to peer outside the window at a grackle in the front yard. I see the intent in his eyes, a prisoner of his genetic desire to stalk this avian prey. Then it dawned on me, Felis sylvestris, the former Latin scientific name of the house cat, now replaced with Felis catus. Felis? Felix the Cat? Sylvestris? Sylvester the Cat? Sure enough, a little research proved my assumption. The naming of Felix the Cat originated from its creator Otto Messmer. Felix from Felis. In this same vein the legendary Friz Freleng named Sylvester the Cat from Felis sylvestris.

We watch the birds a few minutes more. Motorhead (Felis catus subspecies motorus) walks outside to roll in the dirt and I start the day's exercises.

Spring Has Sprung

In previous years my harbinger of spring was the blooming of lyre-leaf sage (Salvia lyrata) but that interpretation has changed. With the passing of the great freezes of 2011 my candidates for spring's entry into this year is the flowering of Spring Beauty (Claytonia virginica). Of the past 11 years in this dung pile town I have experience only two frost kills after I started my spring/summer garden on the 3^rd weekend of February. Next two weeks' sowing: snap beans, summer squash, cucumbers, carrots and come April tomatoes and potatoes.

This is time when the front door stays open for Motorhead to come and go as he please although he nags me to lead him outside now. Mosquitos are around the corner but for now all that enters the house are crane flies. In the past catching and eating these insects was a treat for Motor and Doobie. Motor spends more of his time outside now. In the day he sleeps which gives me solace that more songbirds will be spared. Not that he was adept at catching them anyway. Looking around the yard one week after torching the non-native plants I see the survivors and they appear just as numerous as before however a number of natives are flowering; all forbs except for the eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis) which flowers before its leaves appear. Not far behind will be Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) with leaves that emerge in January and suffered no ill effects from the hard freeze. Spiderwort and violet oxalis flowers died back but reappeared again within two weeks. I'm dismayed at the proliferation of bedstraw throughout the yard but over the years dwindling in number after relentless weeding and torching.

A Broccoli By Any Other Name

I had success this winter with lettuce, greens and Broccoli despite the repeated hard freezes. Broccoli took frost burn on the leaves but rebounded this week with temperatures in the 70's. My spinach didn't pan out; producing only 5-6 plants that are now over ran with Scramble Eggs (Corydalis curvisiliqua). As I surveyed the plant I spotted my first floral head and like many more to follow became dinner tonight. Broccoli (Brassica oleracea) is in the mustard family – BRASSICACEA. Nearly all mustards that grow wild in Texas are cool season plants. On occasion I'll come across a species of Lepiduim in August. In higher altitudes mustard species are common in the summer. In my transient days in the forests of New Mexico I regularly plucked water cress (Nasturtium officinale) from the rivers to augment my beans and ramen noodle dinners. Broccoli is one of several cultivars of B. oleracea, a native of Europe. Over the centuries the species has been grown to enhance a specific part of its body and this cultivar was given another name.

Cultivars of Brassica oleracea:

Broccoli and Calabrese

Califlower

Cabbage

Brussels Sprouts

Kohlrabi

Kali

Collard Greens

Savoys

Frost Weed

Frost Weed (Verbesina virginica) is a flower in the Sunflower Family. It ranges from Texas to Florida and north as far as Pennsylvania. At times of subfreezing temperatures the sap will freeze and expand and the resulting pressure splits the main stem open. I've seen this before in the bottomlands but never took a photograph of this event. Following the recent cold snap that paralyzed a large portion of the country I walked in my back yard to find frozen sap on my dormant frost weeds. Frost Weed can grow to 6 feet.  With its 50 - 100 or more blossoms Frost Weed  is a good plant for bees but is a prolific seeder and can get weedy. 

Said it better than I ever could

On the 100th anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth the conservatives and even NPR are perpetuating his myth.  NPR is kowtowing to the republicans in the House of Representatives because they're scared of losing funding.  I expected NPR to have more stones.  Oh well.

Reagan in One Word

Mean

By CHRISTOPHER FONS

Ronald Reagan was a rat from the beginning. He was a bad actor, snitched for the House Un-American Activities Committee, he shilled for General Electric, and then represented the reactionary forces in the 60's that saw an opening to role back the New Deal and the Great Society as well as the gains of the individualist movements (free speech, civil rights, black power, gay rights, feminism, etc..) of the latter part of the 20th century. He did this by appealing to the American people's worst values; mysticism, selfishness, racism, and extreme nationalism. His was a slick George Wallace, a right wing populist sans the OVERT racism. But we all knew what he was talking about when he talked about "welfare queens," crime and lawlessness. He and Mike Deaver understood that the white ethnics and southerners who were the backbone of the New Deal/Democratic coalition could be split off from blacks and Jews and their labor allies by talking about social issues and taxes. It worked, particularly in the areas of the country where the industrial economy was in decline. Thus the creation of the Reagan Democrat. In the south the process was already underway when the Democratic Party embraced civil rights.
Internationally he allied himself with the most right wing reactionary killers in the world. In Southern Africa they allied with apartheid supporters, supported the prolonged imprisonment of Nelson Mandela, and funded the UNITA killers in Angola. In Mozambique the RENAMO forces that Reagan funded at the time were known to be the most vicious killers in the world. Funded by the US and South Africa their main goal was to terrorize the entire Mozambique population because they had chosen independence and a left wing government.

In Central America and the Caribbean the late 1970's were a time of hope and struggle for human rights and liberation. The Reagan clan said that at all costs, hundreds of thousands of lives and devastated societies, the movement against dictatorship would be crushed. They won. Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Grenada, and the region as a whole have returned to their traditional subservient role in the world economy with the requisite dismal life expectancies, infant mortality, and lack of economic opportunity. In Afghanistan the Carter and Reagan administrations helped create 9/11. They sought out the most reactionary Islamic forces to fight the Afghan government and the Soviets including Osama bin Laden. Their thuggish medieval allies would eventually prevail which gave hope to some of the most reactionary people on the planet. Which is the main reason for Al Queda's success. Billions were given in aid in the name of anti-communism, Reagan's clarion call.

Anything in the name of anti-communism.
The big lie is that he hated "big" government. This was and is a propaganda tool the right wing populists use. They actually use government to discipline the population and redistribute wealth upward. You need a strong state to do this. He increased the size and scope of government not the opposite. Reagan was an expert at this. They claimed that tax cuts got the economy going. Actually the effect of their policies was to lower taxes for the rich and powerful and raise them for working class. State, local, city taxes, fees, tolls, etc... all were raised as result of Reaganomics. Funding for the poor decreased and monies for upper class folks (this was done through tax policy and direct subsidy) and corporations radically skyrocketed giving them the ability to invest where-ever they wanted to in the new Reagan/Thatcher deregulated world. He also represented the massive assault on organized labor that gained steam in the 70's. He and his masters wanted to eliminate the power of labor unions at home and abroad. He saw them as an impediment to unchecked capital accumulation and he did everything in his power, including destroying PATCO, to lessen the power of workers. This development is probably his most long lasting, the fall of the Soviet Union had less to do with him than is claimed.

I had to cringe yesterday when NPR was hailing Ron and Nancy for their "courageous" outspoken views on public health in regard to stem cell research. These are people, because of their bigotry towards gays, stood by while the pandemic of AIDS germinated under their powerful noses. They actually blocked monies for AIDS research and purposefully down played the devastating potential of AIDS. They were in a position to do something, they did nothing because of their bigoted views. In the near future millions will die around the world because of their deliberate negligence.
His legacy is a powerful one. He represents the counter-revolution that we are going through throughout the world. His world was a Hollywood vision of individualism, if you just work hard enough you'll get ahead. From Soweto to Managua millions of people died and will die because in his crony-capitalist world power is highly centralized in private hands and capital trickles up because the state is on the side of the powerful and if you step out of line don't be surprised if El Mano Blanco, a Central American death squad helped by the CIA, puts a cap in your *ss.
In a word, Ronald Reagan: mean.

Christopher Fons lives in Milwaukee and runs the Red and the Black website.

Back and Busted

Been somewhat remiss on my postings. The dead of winter, plants dormant and same old, same old. Now a few plants are emerging; the frontline that will provide pollen in February for the bees. All "blues", the guiding color in the spectrum bee are attracted to this early season. One exception though, the pinkish hedge nettle (Stachys drummondii). Just a name and not a true nettle but in the Mint Family (Lamaceae). The Stachys are the first of the mints to bloom in my yard followed by the skullcaps (Scutellaria spp.) and Beebalms (Monarda spp.) from March to June. The first of the Stachys, S. drummondii is my least favorite as they tend to get invasive and and unappealing to look at after dropping their leaves. Having smothered most of them in areas of my yard I walk a fine line between personal taste and providing for the bees. Next the mouseear betony (S. crenata) emerges but not as prolific. 

 

Outside town a field is populated with the non-native Smooth Hedge Nettle (Stacys arvensis) but I've yet to see it in my yard. 

 

 

 

 

 

Both skullcaps emerge about the same time in April-May and both share the same scientific name - Scutellaria ovata but one is a subspecies: ssp. bracteata. I don't know where the latter originated from but they are both commonly known as Heartleaf Skullcap. My favorite and last to bloom is ssp. bracteata. For years the same 5x5' plot of these skullcaps has returned under the magnolia. I wish they were just a tad more invasive. Photos this spring. Today I noticed the first of many spiderworts blooming and will continue thus until peaking in early April.

I'm back, so what's busted? My foot. Last week I decided after over a year of tolerance to have an operation to remove a benign tumor on the bottom of my left foot. For over a year my body ached as it subtly compensated for the pain in my arch. This lead to continuous muscle aches and particularly a nagging lower back pain that wouldn't heal following the beating it took during the gulf oil spill bird grab. To my amazement the pain decreased by ~90% in my lower back after the surgery even though I am subjecting my body to new resistance by now walking on crutches and preforming nearly all my daily chores and exercise, only taking twice as long to accomplish them. I still have no pain where the tumor was removed. That is until I hit it accidentally when it's not in the walking boot. Two days after my operation, I felt well (and cocky) enough to walk on the side or heel of my foot with the walking boot. Worked out fine and I pushed the limits on this foot until I was admonished by my doctor's assistant that I nearly popped the stitches open. That sufficiently scared me enough to follow doctor's orders and stay off the foot. Now relegated to the daily frustrations of living without the use of one leg and it's a real drag but only temporary as I hope the stitches are removed in a week. I changed the bandages and observed that the incision is sealed but surrounding it is a subcutaneous blood bruise, much like that of a black eye. I don't think this poses any danger to the foot and will dissipate in time.



 

Fifty Years Old

At what point does the feeling of mortality begin? Looking at your body in the mirror; seeing the sags, wrinkles and graying hair? Waking up to perpetually stiff muscles? Fifty years old, one-half century, five decades. The barber shop I entered on my 50^th birthday was not my first choice. The shop formerly called Docs' was closed. It reopened as "Icy Cutz" recently. I feel stupid going in there because of the name so maybe there is no reason to return. This barber shop will have to do as the last vestige of a traditional barbershop and the last one without a hipster name in Angleton. The wall which faces the customer pays homage to the military; young men who left this town to fight in a war fabricated and propped up for years, fed by corporations and a fear mongered population. Sitting on the barber chair I notice a partial interpretation of the second amendment to bill of rights. Quick and to the point, the right to bear arms is a favorite tool of fear for the National Rifle Association and Republican Party. The former to maintain and grow membership, the latter to make the electorate feel the GOP is only defense against the fascist Obama administration. So what? I come here for a haircut and for the time being am tolerant of Rush Limbaugh on the radio because I get a damn good haircut.

What bothers me is his staring; the old man with the feed store cap coming in for what I assume is highlight of his day. At age 50 I'm starting to compare myself to men that are older than me, wondering how the progression of only 10 to 20 more years will have on my mental and physical capacity. He sits there, occasionally engaging in pedestrian conversation but mostly acknowledging what my barber is saying to him.

At this point in life it's not so much the midlife crisis as it is the endgame. I've been fortunate to escape the midlife crisis, being satisfied with my adventurous life. Would have loved to work for the CIA but I screwed up my personal life too early for that. Should I pass judgment on this man without first finding out the life he led? Am I scared to ask because I may be looking at myself in 30 years? Is there anything left to him beyond getting up and hoping his children call him today? His face is so vacant, voided of any extracurricular thought. At what point did he give up?


You can't live in this society and not be immune to the capitalistic forces that want to profit off your age. Hospitals want to scope your colon, Luby's will give you a senior discount, you need One A Day vitamins in your golden years and the makers of Viagra want to give you a four hour erection. I've yet to be told I'm not a kid anymore but that day will come. The forces are numerous that want to take your identity and bring you back into the Matrix and you have to fight it from day one. This is becoming a society of mental pygmies, wasting away without any legacy to improve the destiny of mankind. I need to either escape or become part of the solution. It's 1:35 in the morning. I'm too tired to think anymore. Goodnight

The War Weasel

I'm ferret siting for Chelsea and Nick while they are vacationing in England. Never had a ferret before but after a day I settled into living with one. The rest of the family doesn't know what to think of BASIL. Motorhead is scared of him, Spock would love to kill him, Othello is undecided and Kahn lets him sniff him. Kahn is the only one I trust with Basil. His full name is Basil Hewett but I call him Basil Rathbone after the British actor that played Sherlock Holmes. Basil (Mustela putorius furo) is a member of the weasel family and possibly a domesticated descendant of European ferrets. He is a true carnivore but only eats ferret pellet food. He has to stay in my room due to the dangers of escaping outside or getting near Spock. Nevertheless he has many opportunities (closets, nooks/crannies and boxes) in there to keep him busy. Otherwise he sleeps for 18 hours a day. In the video you'll see the War Weasel Dance behavior as he fights with my hand. This is displayed as a side to side motion and freaked out jittering.

MUTANT OCTOPUS-SHARK WEEKEND

TENTACLES

Plot (From Netflix)

When the bodies of several dead swimmers and divers begin washing ashore, a seaside town is thrown into a panic. A giant octopus is responsible, and Dr. Ned Turner (John Huston) thinks that its appearance may be related to the construction of an undersea tunnel. And even though an upcoming sailing competition may endanger the lives of countless people, local authorities are hesitant to keep anyone out of the water.

Thoughts

I'm glad I got this one over with first. It was wretched and I felt pity for the once great actors who starred in it – Shelly Winters, John Huston and Henry Fonda. The dialog between Winters and Huston and Fonda was actually quit good but you will notice a precipitous drop in acting ability for the rest of the cast. The monster? Well, you need a lot of imagination to overcome the few seconds it is shown as either stock footage of a real octopus or a piece of tentacle. When the octopus was present you had to assume it killed the victim when he or she disappears beneath the water. The protagonist was Will Gleason (Bo Hopkins) who owns or maybe works for a sea world type venue that includes two killer whales. I'm not sure but the movies degrades further when Will ask his whales to hunt down the octopus. I know whales are smart but this is a stretch. At the movies' climax Will is trapped underwater as the octopus closes in but is saved by the killer whales. This scene looks like someone used rubber whales to poke at a real octopus. A dismembered tentacle tells you the octopus was killed. Since the octopus looks as big as the rubber whales you must assume it was gigantic.

Rating: Don't bother watching unless you like Farah Fawcett hairstyles and late 70's action music.



SHARKTOPUS

Plot (From Netflix)

After research scientist Dr. Sands (Eric Roberts) and his daughter, Nicole (Sara Malakul Lane), develop an electrical-implant-controlled hybrid shark/octopus for use by the government as a classified naval weapon, the creature breaks down and goes on a homicidal spree. As the animal chomps its way through the resort beaches of Mexico, Dr. Sands tries to convince a retired colleague to help him and Nicole stop the carnage.

Thoughts

I saw this in Colorado with my friends Rob and Sue and annoyed her by critiquing the eating habits of the monster. A thin, tired plot and overused computer graphics. This movie gets points for showing the monster frequently and in its entirety as it gobbled down most of the cast plus extras. You have to admire the cheesiness of blood splatter on the camera lens. The final scenes leading to the demise of the monster was tedious as you wondered why Sharktopus didn't immediately eat the hero like everyone else. Dr. Sands is portrayed as a scientist that doesn't care how many people are killed by the monster so long as he has a chance to capture it. Thus you know he's a goner. Also, you'd think that after spending millions combining a shark and octopus that Dr. Sands shouldn't have skimped on securing the gadget that controlled the behavior of the monster. It was knocked off by a propeller from its position on top of the head. Why wasn't it implanted near the brain with only an antenna sticking out of the skull?

Rating: Barely worth seeing once and that is why I'm not giving away the ending.



YOG – MONSTER FROM OUTER SPACE

Plot (From Wikipedia)

A space probe, dubbed Helios 7, is sent to study Jupiter. En Route to the planet, the probe is invaded by Yog, an extraterrestrial being of pure energy. The probe lands in the South Pacific, where the disembodied alien leaves the device and invades the body of a Gezora, a giant cuttlefish, which proceeds to wreak havoc. When a photographer named Kudo and a small entourage landed on Selga Island, they are likewise menaced by Gezora.

Thoughts

This movie is not distributed by Netflix although the director, Ishirō Honda', has many available movies starring Godzilla and a host of other monsters. It is for sale on Amazon and I expect to receive it in a week. Nevertheless I have fond memories when I last saw it in 1970 and will go on what I remember as a 10 year old. I include it because the giant cuttlefish (close enough to an octopus) is the dominant monster. Yog also inhabits a giant crab and giant turtle. Giant animals are always around in the ocean in Honda's movies. Some say this movie was evidence that Mr. Honda had lost his creativity; that his great monster movie days were behind him. I say rubbish. It was ingenious to come up with bat sonar as the disrupter of Yogs' control over the animals. Classic Godzilla-like destruction and the sound track compliment and heighten the edge-of-your-seat action. Selga Island must be in the same region of Monster Island where Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra live.

Rating: A must see movie. One wonders why the quality of monster movies dipped in the late 70's (Tentacles). Then again all cultural media seemed to bomb after Disco became popular.  Originally titled "Space Amoeba".



MEGASHARK VS GIANT OCTOPUS

Plot (From Netflix)

After a series of mysterious disasters occurs in the Pacific, from the disappearance of a plane to the destruction of an oil rig, a group of scientists discovers that a secret military mission has unearthed a prehistoric shark and a giant octopus. When the government learns of the existence of the menacing beasts, the team of scientists is tasked with formulating a plan to destroy the phenomenal creatures. Lorenzo Lamas and Deborah Gibson star.

Thoughts

I awaited the viewing of this movie with much anticipation. I don't' know if it was ever shown in a movie theater but it was a Youtube sensation. There is only three ways to get a giant shark or octopus or a combination – manmade experiment (radiation or laboratory), alien body invasion or creation of nature. The latter was used for this movie and ripped off from a Godzilla movie or two because he to was frozen in ice. You cannot take this movie serious. There are so many gaps and horrible acting that it is a must-see event for a crowd of intoxicated people. Deborah Gibson (formerly Debbie Gibson of 70's pop fame and still looks great!) is the heroine. She is exploring in a mini sub in what I assume is the Arctic Ocean even though the stock video shows manta rays and hammerhead sharks. As she and her portly navigator (gone after the first 20 minutes of the movie) follow a pod of humpback whales when an illegal Low Frequency Action Sonar Device (her words) is dropped by a helicopter that must be working for the United States Military. Maybe. This device screws up the sonar calls of the whales and somehow emits the right ice-cracking frequency to unlock the giant shark and octopus from their iceberg prison. That's where they somehow froze together while in mortal combat with each other 80 millions years ago. The shark was determined to be a prehistoric megalodon. In reality it is at most 50 ft long. For this movie it is the size of a submarine, can withstand artillery shells and jump 2000 feet in the air to snatch an airliner. Awesome! Too much to talk about. There's also a 30 second love scene between Gibson and her lab geek coworker. After they are finished they figure out how to lure in the shark and octopus. The Geeks shall inherit the Earth! The silliness peaks in the last 20 minutes. Lorenzo Lamos also stars as a CIA(?) Operative that needs to keep the monster's presence a secret.

THE WINNER!

Umm... Someone needs a girlfriend.

A nation of sick, fat children because....

Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability.

Chicken McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasiedible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill.”

- "The Omnivores Dilemma" by Michael Pollan"

A 10 piece order of McNuggets = 420 calories and 24 grams of fat