Category: Animals / Insects / Water Life / Plants / Nature
Good Morning!
the cat, a black fur sausage with yellow Houdini eyes, jumps up on the bed and tries to get onto my head. It’s his way of telling whether or not I’m dead. by Worriedman
Margaret Atwood – “February” Read on Substack
I hope everybody goes and reads this terrific poem. It’s a joy to read. Every word is right. The focus of the poem shifts from a cat’s butthole to the spectre of widespread famine and the end of civilization. In like, two stanzas. That’s pretty nimble!
I can’t wait for this! Working a happy horse and a warm sunny day –
It’s not February yet. Just a few days though.
Barncat isn’t a black cat. More relentlessly gray.With pretty green eyes.
I am very fond of giant flowers that grow in the house in the dead of winter.
Starlings, in the field across the road.
Sunrise in the Greenhouse
Juice !
Juice loves late ’60s Grateful Dead.
I need to explore the Fen/Zardoz connection
That’s all I have room for – Thanks for dropping by.
A Few Comics
that have made me laugh while I’m trying to get a good BP after reading headlines.
Close to Home by John McPherson for January 28, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2025/01/28
Cattitude — Doggonit by Anthony Smith for January 27, 2025
(This one was a happy accident as I thought I’d clicked on a different one.)
https://www.gocomics.com/cattitude-doggonit/2025/01/27
Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for January 28, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2025/01/28
Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for January 28, 2025
A Brain Cleanser from Lit Hub
Snippets from my this week’s newsletter, with links.
| Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” is published in The Evening Mirror. |
| In January 1845, the greatest goth in literary history published what would swiftly become his most famous poem: “The Raven.” Poe first sold the poem (for $9, the equivalent of about $375 today) to the American Review, where it would appear—under the pen name “Quarles”—in the February 1845 issue. It was published concurrently in the January 29 edition of The Evening Mirror, prefaced by a note from editor Nathaniel Parker Willis, who called it “the most effective single example of ‘fugitive poetry’ ever published in this country, and unsurpassed in English poetry for subtle conception, masterly ingenuity of versification, and consistent sustaining of imaginative lift and ‘pokerishness.’” Well, sure. “The Raven,” if for some reason you don’t know it, is a narrative poem about a young scholar who, sitting alone on a bleak December night, mourning his lost love Lenore, is visited by a raven, who torments him by speaking, over and over again, a single word. Poe later wrote that he knew he wanted this word—“nevermore”—to be repeated throughout the poem, but finding the idea of a person uttering it too implausible, he struck upon “the idea of a non-reasoning creature capable of speech; and, very naturally, a parrot, in the first instance, suggested itself, but was superseded forthwith by a Raven, as equally capable of speech, and infinitely more in keeping with the intended tone.” Well, it worked pretty well, you might say. The poem, writes Poe biographer Arthur Hobson Quinn, “made an impression probably not surpassed by that of any single piece of American poetry. It was widely copied, parodied, and one humorist even took over a page of the Mirror to suggest five alternatives as to the relation of Lenore to the poet.” One-hundred-eighty years later, it may be still unsurpassed, though contenders abound. Either way, as you have probably noticed, the parodies and tributes have never stopped. We shall be quoting it forevermore. |
MORE WHERE THAT CAME FROM
In Search of the Rarest Book in American Literature: Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane
A Brief and Incomplete Survey of Edgar Allan Poes in Pop Culture
The Greatest Goths in Literary History
| YEP, STILL SLAPS Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore— While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door— Only this and nothing more.” –EDGAR ALLAN POE, “THE RAVEN” |
| In other (old)news this week Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to his daughter, pooh-poohing the bald eagle as the symbol of America, and instead championing the great and noble turkey (January 26, 1784) • John Millington Synge’s play The Playboy of the Western World premieres at The Abbey Theatre in Dublin and causes a riot (January 26, 1907) • The first part of Henry James’s novella The Turn of the Screw is published in Collier’s Weekly magazine (January 27, 1898) • Franz Kafka begins work on his novel The Castle at the mountain resort of Spindermühle (January 27, 1922) • Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is published anonymously in London (January 28, 1813) • Thomas Jefferson sells his library to the government after the Library of Congress burns down (January 30, 1815) • Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters premieres at the Moscow Art Theater (January 31, 1901) • The first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary is published (February 1, 1884) • Great American Iconoclast Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is published (February 1, 1962) • David Foster Wallace’s eerily prescient Infinite Jest is published (February 1, 1996). (snip-More) |
I hope you enjoyed it! These newsletters are free, and are great for brain/heart health breaks.
Peace & Justice History for 1/28
| January 28, 1992 Nuclear production at the Rocky Flats Nuclear Arsenal – a complex used for both power plants and nuclear weapon munition manufacture – was permanently closed after repeated revelations of environmental contamination in the surrounding land and water supply, 25 miles northwest of Denver. Following closure, the facilities were completely dismantled and the site cleared.   The principal product of Rocky Flats was the fissionable plutonium trigger or “pit” at the core of every nuclear warhead in the U.S. arsenal. Since its construction in 1951 it was managed at different times by Dow Chemical, Rockwell International and EG&G. Dow and Rockwell paid fines in the tens of millions of dollars and were ordered to pay damages in the hundreds of millions to local residents for the environmental damage. Despite the residual plutonium contamination on the 6500-acre site, it has been transferred by the Department of Energy to the Fish and Wildlife Service (Interior) as the Rocky Flats Wildlife Refuge. Rocky Flats Right to Know |
January 28, 1995 Soldiers’ Mothers Committee members Over 100 members of the Committee of Soldiers’ Mothers of Russia went to a Red Army training camp to reclaim their sons. Since its founding in 1989 the Soldiers’ Mothers Committee had worked to expose human rights violations within the Russian military and has consistently supported a true alternative service option for conscientious objectors. The Mothers Committee earned the 1996 Right Livelihood Award This link takes us to the Right Livelihood Award main page. Apparently 1996 is too far back, or I didn’t search it correctly. P&J’s link goes to an error page on the site. -A. |
https://www.peacebuttons.info/E-News/peacehistoryjanuary.htm#january28
Good Stuff!
I can’t get the Mastodon page Tengrain links, but I found two stories about the panels, so have at it! (Click on “two stories”, and on “the panels.”
We Get Another Hummingbird This Week: “Border Beauty”
And As Soon As I Stop Posting, There’s Another!
Scary Gary by Mark Buford for January 23, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/scarygary/2025/01/23
Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for January 23, 2025
Wallace the Brave by Will Henry for January 22, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/wallace-the-brave/2025/01/22
WuMo by Wulff & Morgenthaler for January 23, 2025
Because They Made Me and Ollie Laugh-
Close to Home by John McPherson for January 23, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/closetohome/2025/01/23
Dark Side of the Horse by Samson for January 23, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/darksideofthehorse/2025/01/23
Get Fuzzy by Darby Conley for January 23, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/getfuzzy/2025/01/23
Jim Benton Cartoons by Jim Benton for January 23, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/jim-benton-cartoons/2025/01/23
(Not as funny, but good, so here it is:)
Brian McFadden for January 20, 2025
https://www.gocomics.com/brian-mcfadden/2025/01/2
Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 22, 2025
- Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 23, 2025
AM Nature Science
I saw this title in a couple of places first thing, and thought it’s a great way to get started! Enjoy. -A
Sunfish that got sick after aquarium closed has recovered — thanks to human cutouts
By MARI YAMAGUCHI Updated 8:27 AM CST, January 22, 2025
TOKYO (AP) — A solitary sunfish at an aquarium in southwestern Japan lost its appetite, began banging into the side of the fishtank and appeared unwell days after the facility closed last month for renovations. As a last-ditch measure to save the popular fish, its keepers hung their uniforms and set up human cutouts outside the tank.
The next morning, the sunfish ate for the first time in about a week and has been steadily recovering, said Moe Miyazawa, an aquarist at the Kaikyokan aquarium in Shimonoseki.
The large sunfish arrived at the aquarium in February 2024 from the southern coast of Kochi in the Pacific Ocean. The sunfish, a member of the blowfish family known for its unique shape and big eyes, became one of the most popular attractions at the facility.
When the sunfish began looking unwell days after the aquarium closed on Dec. 1 for a six-month renovation, its keepers suspected digestive problems, gave it less food and visited the fish tank to comfort the sunfish when there was construction noise, but to no avail.
Then at a staff meeting, one person suggested that the sunfish might have been affected by the sudden absence of an audience.
“We were skeptical but decided to do anything we could,” Miyazawa said. They hung their uniforms and placed human-shaped cutouts with photos of smiling faces outside the tank to cheer on the fish, Miyazawa said.
“I knew (the sunfish) was looking at us when we were placing them, but I never thought it would start eating the next day,” Miyazawa said, beaming. The staff now visit more often and wave at the sunfish.
The aquarium keepers say they hope many fans will return to see the sunfish when the aquarium reopens in the summer.
Scottie's Playtime 