Today's Butterflies

Today scores of butterflies visited the sunny flower beds at west-facing Clog-House, Est. 1935:

Gulf Fritillary
Cloudless Sulfur
Long-tailed Skipper
another brown Skipper – 2-3 white checks on wings
Zebra Long-wing

It is truly pleasurable and amazing to this Idaho transplant that so many butterflies visit our north-central Florida flower beds this late in the season.

United In Death - November 8

Today' mashup unites an American painter, a British poet, and a Scottish philospher, all of whom died on a November 8th.

Norman Rockwell 1894-1978, American painter
John Milton 1608-1674, British poet
Duns Scotus 1255/66-1308, Scottish Philosopher

Rockwell is best known for his cover paintings for the Saturday Evening Post.

Milton left Cambridge University following a fist-fight with his tutor. His work Areopagitica, published as a pamphlet, is a seminal reference that argues for freedom of speech. View his poems here.

An interesting discussion of the birthplace and philosophy of Blessed John Duns Scotus is available in the Catholic Encyclopedia.

mashup, Norman Rockwell, John Milton, Duns Scotus, November 8th

Rumsfeld Is Bugging Out

Donald Rumsfeld is leaving the Bush administration. So said a brief statement on Reuters at 12:53 p.m.

President Bush confirmed it at 1:06 during his televised conference, and praised Rumsfeld for his service. Bush nominated Bob Gates to replace Rumsfeld, a former Director of Intelligence who has served in 6 administrations.

Donald Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld, Robert Gates, Secretary of State

More Dance and Music

Yesterday was a busy day for the Clog-wife and me. She had a series of performances with the Greenwood Morris side at the annual Gainesville (FL) Downtown Arts Festival. I put in a 3-hour stint with the newly-formed trio of which I am the guitarist, Fear No Weevil, playing for the Gainesville Old-Time Dance Society's bi-monthly contra dance. We played a series of energetic (gross understatement) old-time Appalachian fiddle tunes for the dancers. For three hours.

Fear No Weevil's lineup includes banjoist/fiddle leader Chuck Levy and fiddler Dave Forbes. Dave is an extremely accomplished instrument artisan. His banjos, produced earlier in his career as a craftsman, are one of the most sought-after instruments among 5-string clawhammer style banjo players. His bows are played in orchestras world-wide, and are the recipients of many awards. Dave currently also plays string bass in the Gainesville Fl Jazz band Hot Club de Ville, with band leader Marty Liquori, who you may remember as a legendary mile-runner from a former era.

dance, traditional music, Gainesville Florida, banjo, Fear No Weevil, old time music, David Forbes bow, fiddle, southern music

Dance Magic Dance

The Clog-wife and I travelled to Jacksonville, FL to participate in a half-day dance workshop taught by Kieran Jordan. The workshop focused on fundamentals of Irish Sean Nos and Cape Breton styles of percussive dance.

The group was extremely fortunate to have live music to learn steps and dance to in the lively duo Laura Risk on violin and Paddy League on guitar and bodhran. The Clog Almanac wholeheartedly recommends Kieran Jordan's dance workshops and performances to anyone interested in exploring stepdance traditions, and likewise the music workshops and recordings by both Laura Risk and Paddy League. Follow this link to watch a video of Laura and Paddy performing on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center.

After the exhilarating workshop we hied to a traditional folklife festival in White Springs hosted by the Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center, where two of the workshop participants joined fellow members of the Cross Creek Cloggers to perform several of their traditional Appalachian clogging routines. Just spitting distance from the beautiful and legendary Suwannee River. We drove home to High Springs as the sun was setting in the west and the full November moon rose in the east. That was a lovely end to a fabulous day filled with traditional dance and virtuosic live music.

sean nos, Cape Breton, stepdance, Kieran Jordan, Laura Risk, Paddy League, Celtic music, Suwannee River

Scottish Cello Music - CD Review

New in the mail yesterday: Castles, Kirks, and Caves - Scottish Music of the 18th Century, featuring the haunting and powerful virtuosity of cellist Abby Newton. Newton's restrained and nuanced interpretations of the selection of tunes are sublime.

I especially enjoyed the 5th track - Neil Gow's Lament on the Death of His Second Wife. This is a classic and well-loved tune generally played by the violin, but as she points out in the liner notes, this melody is a man's lament equally well-suited to the range of the cello.

I recommend the CD (RWMCD 5410) to anyone with an ear for fine music from the Celtic lands. Listen to track samples here.

cello, Abby Newton, Scottish music, 18th Century

Greenhouse Gases Up Up Up

Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are at an all time high. A senior scientist at the World Meteorological Association suggests that controls more stringent than those of the Kyoto Protocol of 1997 are required.

greenhouse gases, global warming, Kyoto protocol, climate change, anthropogenic emissions

The Decline of Fish

Get your seafood while you can. It might be all gone within your lifetime.

Remember those history lessons about the Grand Banks? That cod fishery collapsed and is probably gone for good. the same is now happening on a global scale.

Let's make it an object lesson. Scientists warned, politicians ignored the facts and did little to address problems and implement solutions, factory [over]fishing went unabated, and fish stocks went extinct.

Now apply that object lesson to other issues like global warming, international whaling, deforestation, &c, &c.

This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

fish, fisheries, seafood, global warming, extinction

Today's Birds

Observed at Chapman's Pond, a favorite birding stop on the Great Florida Birding Trail, Gainesville, Florida.

Boat-tailed grackle
Phoebe
White ibis
Tri-colored heron
Little blue heron
White egret
Coot
Blue-winged teal

The 30 or so teal (mostly females) were busy dabbling. Grackles were congregating in noisy groups among the cattails bordering the pond. The lone phoebe paused for a moment's perch atop a pole supporting a nestbox upslope from the pond.

I collected a handfull of achene/pappus "parachute" fruits of a couple of aster species that grew rampantly in waste areas around the pond, in hopes of getting them established in "natural areas" around the yard at Clog-House Est. 1935.

One couldn't have hoped for a prettier day, though the birding could have been better. There will be better days ahead.

birds, birdwatching, birding, Florida, Chapman's Pond

Sumac Tea

I enjoyed a very pleasant walk in the woods south and west of Gainesville Florida the whole of this afternoon. The tract was former farmland. Trees along the wooded areas surrounding a cleared area exceeding 40 acres were predominantly very old live oaks, with scattered longleaf pines, post oaks, bluejack oak, turkey oak, occasional upland laurel and water oaks, Walter's viburnum, and American and yaupon hollies. There were gopher tortoise burrows, Opuntia cactus, 2 species of pawpaw, Agave, sparkleberry, and numerous wildflowers and grasses that indicated the land was once a sandhill community. It was very hard to go back to the office on this lovely Autumn day in Florida. The pressing thought was that this land needed to be burned to reset the clock to encourage those periodic fire-adapted species to reassert their presence in this area.

Before leaving, I picked a double-handfull of winged sumac infructescences: clusters of very small red drupes from which I will steep and make a strong sour "lemonade" this evening, flavored with fresh ginger and a stick or two of cinnamon, and a measure of honey or sugar.

On the balance, life is good. I try to make homemade music every day (guitar, piano, fiddle, banjo, pennywhistle), dance at least once a week, and walk through a local woodland two or three times a week. Life could be much much worse.

sumac, sumac tea, bluejack oak, turkey oak, Florida, sandhill, gopher tortoise

DANNY HAROLD ROLLINGS

Serial Killer Danny Harold Rollings was executed at 6:13 EST today. I had just moved to the University of Florida when he went on his spree to become a superstar criminal: the brutal mutilation murders of 5 local college students. Residents of the city of Gainesville were terrorized by this man who had vowed to kill one person for each of the 5 years he had been incarcerated for other crimes.

One consequence of the student murders that was never discussed: the number of big dogs owned by off-campus students and Gainesville townsfolk increased noticeably. American pitbulls were previously the dog of choice for the reddest of redneck men; the most unsophisticated of drug dealers; and congenitally inhumane illegal dog fighters - most of whom live off in the woods where their pathologies go mostly unnoticed and unpunished. Suddenly pitbulls were seen everywhere. Being led through downtown street art shows; marauding through the dog park; and happily defecating on the lawns of student apartments and curbsides of the most genteel of urban core neighborhoods alike. This canine unpleasantness continues to this day, more than a decade later.

Rollings killed 5 kids just as they were blooming into adulthood. The community is still horrified and reacting to his actions.


Danny Rollings, Gainesville Florida, execution,
death penalty, pitbull, bulldog

Katharine Harris - Only Good From The Waist Up

Florida Democrat Bill Nelson and republican Katherine Harris squared off tonight in a televised debate. The event was aired on my local north Florida television outlet.

Bill Nelson emerged as a composed, experienced, humble, down-to-earth, and moderate-thinking Floridian who convincingly argued that he has served Florida while remaining immune to the interests and money of big corporations and lobbyists; one who has served with the so-called People of Florida in mind. He stood on his record and seemed to defend and deflect the rehearsed challenges of his republican opponent; challenges which seemed to be contrived and designed to snatch whatever spotlight his record, personal philosophies and positions held.

Katherine Harris put on an unflattering variety of stage show worthy of a moneyed, rehearsed-with-consultants, yet still trailing-badly-in-the-polls political candidate. The performance was vaguely reminiscent of the risible, grinning, and badly ill-advised presidential debate antics of Michael Dukakis. Harris frequently strode from behind the podium to smile, show her legs, and speak patronizingly in turn to her opponent, to the audience, moderator, and panel. She battered viewers with stiff smiles and awkward gestures. She attempted to own the stage as if this were the true key to winning the votes she needs to overtake the front-runner Nelson.

In the end, Katherine Harris' legs seemed uncomfortably too big, too out of proportion to the rest of her and to her stage. Perhaps so with her ambitions to the Florida Senate and beyond as well.

Katherine Harris, Bill Nelson, Florida Senate, Senate Race, Florida

Intl Respect For Chickens Day

Have you respected a chicken lately?

How could I have let yesterday pass without calling attention to this most fowl of holidays?

Mr. Hiatus Returns

I'm back, but let me 'splain a little.

The Clog-wife has been hard at work with a couple of months of on-line graduate courses and has tied up the machine at home for many weeks now. My ability to sneak-post a daily entry or two to this blog while at work has drastically been curtailed due to departmental changes to "streamline the process" that have doubled or tripled everyone's workload. I'm talking a "since the changes I've started smoking and drinking/halucinating and crucifying my spouse" sort of new work environment.

Thanks to faithful readers and newcomers to this site who've clicked through despite my absence during the past few weeks. I'm putting my life and personal schedule in order and will be blogging regularly again. I promise. Ciao!

I And The Bird #17

The Clog Almanac welcomes fellow bird lovers who have winged over from that choice blog carnival, I And The Bird, hosted this week by Wildbird On The Fly.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed my post and took the time to read what other more illustrious and dedicated birders had to share. Happy birding everyone!

Observed today at or above Chapman's Pond, in Gainesville Florida:

Blue-winged teal
Green-winged teal
Bufflehead (2 females)
Hooded Merganser
Pied-billed grebe
Coot
White ibis
Lesser yellowlegs
Palm warbler
Loggerhead shrike
Green tree swallow
Snowy egret
Osprey
Red-tailed hawk
Sandhill crane

Florida, birds, birding

Glad Cheney Was In Texas

While Vice President Cheney was shooting quail and his hunting partners on the Armstrong Ranch in Texas, my tiny Florida hometown was having a hunting fiasco of its own:

In order to quash a long-standing wild chicken problem in the southwest part of town, the city of High Springs invoked the final solution and sent armed firefighters through the neighborhood shooting chickens. Residents were not informed of the residential hunt beforehand, and not a few were noticeably upset to find men with .22 caliber rifles running through their yards blasting away at feral chickens. Read the full story in its hilarity in the High Springs Herald.

Money quote: "Anything that was moving they were shooting."

Great Flocks Of Robins, No Sh**

For the past two days flocks of robins, Turdus migratorius, have frequented the mature urban forest surrounding Clog-House, Est. 1935. Turdus? Indeed.

Flocks of robins numbering 100-200 birds, are common winter residents in north-central Florida. My first, and let's say astounding encounter with flocks of robins was in an unlikely (to my northwestern experience) place - a salt marsh/estuary system adjacent to the Gulf of Mexico in Florida. Not the typical solitary individuals of this common American thrush species I'd come to know in lawns and gardens of northern climes.

robin, Florida, birds, Turdus, salt marsh

Cartoonish Muslim Rage In Perspective

The Opinion Journal has a great article that dissects many of the arguments behind the cartoonish Muslim rage at the publication of caricatures of Mohammed.

Mohammed cartoon, Islam cartoon, cartoon, Mohammed cariacature, Mohammed, Muslim, Islam

United In Death - February 10

Today's Clog Almanac Friday Mashup contraposes a pair of popes, a pair of writers, and a surgeon, all of whom died on a February 10.

1992 Alex Haley – U.S. writer (Roots, Biography of Malcolm X)
1957 Laura Ingalls Wilder – U.S. author (Little House on the Prairie)
1939 Pius XI – Italian Pope (1929-1932)
1912 Joseph Lister – British surgeon and antiseptic pioneer
1829 Leo XII – Italian Pope (1823-1829)

My brother saw Alex Haley in an airport in the 1980's. Upon boarding his flight, he discovered he was seated next to Tom Landry, then coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Landry didn't sign my brother, but they did talk football and the college programs that were courting my brother's talents as a defensive back and fleet kick return specialist.

Pius XI is known for his stance against fascism and Naziism.

Leo XII had 6 first names. He reluctantly ascended to the papacy, having retired years before.

Baron Lister? Among my collection (350+) of antique corkscrews are a few very tiny wedding-ring-sized corkscrews bearing Listerine advertising, either stamped on the flattened wire finger-pull ring or lithographed in red on the narrow yellow metal finger band. My latest addition arrived today, purchased from someone who found it in a box of vintage buttons at an auction. You never know when an object of your affection or interest will turn up. That is why I believe everyone ought to collect something. To a dedicated collector, every day holds promise - you just don't know what might turn up and turn your day into something spectacular, and you always are on the look-out for those things....

A Great Big Why?

A web robot from Vulcan, Inc. has been sniffing at my feed lately. Why? Why? Why?

(Note to Paul G. Allen: You’re welcome here any time, and you don't have to answer the question.)