Happy Birthday to Travis

Travis is 34 today, so now he's almost as old as I am!

Monstrously late comment

So this is far too tardy to match the 24-hour election news cycle, but last weekend there were stories about an Obama advisor who got booted for referring to Hillary Clinton as a "monster" (off the record), with attendant shock-and-appall responses from both the Clinton and Obama campaigns.

We hear so much about the US Presidency being the hardest job in the world, being ready to answer the phone at 3 AM, etc. Couldn't we expect that individual to have a bit thicker skin? (And please understand, this is not a criticism of Hillary Clinton. This pattern is repeated innumerable times in any campaign.) Couldn't a campaign just blow this off, indicating a little more toughness and a little less political gamesmanship? "Oh that... yeah, we understand that an advisor to Obama made an off the record comment. Called Senator Clinton a 'monster', I think? Well, maybe she thinks that Senator Clinton is a tough character, maybe a little bit scary with her strength. Or maybe she said something dumb in the middle of a long, exhausting campaign. Or maybe she just doesn't like Senator Clinton. But really, does it matter? Do you really think this is the first time Senator Clinton has heard someone say something not nice about her? C'mon... Oh, but if you we're asking to check facts, no, Senator Clinton is not a vampire."

Even better would be if Clinton jumped out at the press corps, wearing a Frankenstein mask, saying, "Boogity, boogity, boogity!" but that's probably too much to hope for.

(Aside: I obviously don't understand what "off the record" means, if such a comment is immediately printed and attributed to the speaker.)

What not to eat

I'm reading capsule endoscopy studies again (I'd put in a link to my previous rants/posts on the subject, but I don't know how). I learned some valuable info about Chicken n' Stars soup, which I used to really like growing up. The stars don't digest. Stomach acid, pancreatic enzymes, and 5 hours in the small bowel aren't enough to digest the stars. I know this because I spent 30 minutes watching stars, and the occasional bit of stringy chicken, travel through someone's digestive tract. OK, now I'm hungry.

The birds

I'm working from home today, and I just saw a marvel of nature.

I opened the front door to let Tex out. (No, of course, she didn't actually want to go out. She was just meowing at the door. And no, she's not the marvel of nature.) There was a flock of smallish, black birds down the driveway and across Ivy Terrace, making such a ruckus that I could hear them quite easily from our front door. Walking closer, I saw what had to be at least a thousand birds. Over a few minutes, most of them congregated on the ground in a backyard. That group of groundlings then flew 50 yards through some trees to some different open land. All the while, the birds had been chirping and chattering. Their calls stopped, all at once, as all of the birds took off from ground and trees. The sound of their wings was stunning: soft in quality, like a stack of frayed paper being ruffed, but loud in volume, because there were hundreds of stacks of paper, all around.

The flock redistributed themselves at the tops of trees around the Holler and resumed their calls. After a few minutes, they started to leave, a steady stream heading north. There were so many that the leaving itself took a few minutes. But then it was quiet and they were gone, black specks headed north, a few blocks or a few hundred miles.

It was a wonderful ten minutes or so. I was reminded of the cicadas in 2004.

What makes a little dude happy

We paid a quick visit to cousin E in New Jersey this weekend and had a good time hanging out with him and his dogs, Mabel and Maggie. The pups were, in fact, a highlight for Owen. He liked trying to touch their paws, though they were clearly unenthusiastic about the prospect. And he loved it when they wrestled. They did it a couple times, and both times he watched them in quiet amazement for a minute or two. And then he started to laugh, cackling with delight. It surprised me, because high-voltage hilarity is generally reserved for things being done to him: tickling, being tossed in the air, being carried up stairs. But just seeing something and laughing is rare. He'll smile at us, Carla, or a few favorite books - not necessarily in that order - but the only other time I can remember him really knocked-out amused by seeing something was when Tex leaped onto a ledge to get away from his grasp.

Mr O was also very happy to examine a VCR and a large candle-holder, as for a pillar candle, but sans candle, on a low shelf. Why the latter, when there were so many more dangerous objects around? Who's to say. The candle-holder had a reindeer motif. "Genghis loves animals," as we used to say before he was born.

Owen is a good traveler, but he seemed quite happy to get home. This also was a surprise. When he's returned from previous trips, I don't remember the sense of yay that he seemed to exhibit yesterday afternoon.