Sometimes it takes a little while to get places in WV because there is a lot of pedestrian traffic:
My sister once honked at turkeys crossing the road because they were taking too long, and one of the mothers attacked her in her car. Later that day, when Devon was driving past the same area, she swears the same turkey shot her a “Don’t mess with me” glare.
Schlemazel
Just spent several days in Yellowstone park we had to wait for elk and buffalo at different times. It was worth it. We have turkeys around here too but they do not pay us humans any attention at all
schrodinger's cat
I saw a mommy turkey with two chicks this Saturday morning when I went for a run.
yodecat
John!
I live in rural SW Oregon. Wild life is a feature. The other day a confused deer held up traffic on Hwy 101 just South of Brooking. No one honked, everyone stopped and the doe finally figured it out. Yesterday I was in a bathrobe examining a Hebe filled with European bees; a lady hummingbird dropped out of the sky and hovered about six inches in front of my face for almost half a minute. Every day, it’s sumpin’. I love it.
Cathie from Canada
One of the urban legends in northern Saskatchewan is the semi driver who was driving down a road late one night and stopped for a moose to cross. The driver honked to speed him up. The moose attacked the truck and destroyed the front end, rendering the truck immobile and stranding the driver until morning.
Moral: don’t honk at wildlife!
Olivia
We have a huge flock that stops traffic early in the morning on a main road in late summer, early fall. They act like bullying gang members and everyone just stops and waits until they decide to let traffic pass.
Cacti
Happy to see John Kerry vindicated in middle east policy, after the way his service to country was so shamefully slandered by the GOP warmongers in 2004.
Omnes Omnibus
@Cathie from Canada: Mynd you, møøse bites Kan be pretty nasti…
jnfr
@yodecat:
That is an excellent story.
22over7
@Cathie from Canada: That actually happened to a buddy of mine outside Jackson Hole. Bull moose was holding up traffic, my buddy tried to go around him, moose swung around and shredded his bumper. I saw the damage. Do not mess with moose.
jl
” and one of the mothers attacked her in her car. ”
The turkey got inside the car through the window and attacked her, or pecked its way through the glass and metal and attacked her? Wow, whichever, those WV turkeys are tough.
? Martin
So far it sounds like this deal with Iran really is pretty good. Sanctions on heavy arms stay in place for 5 years, ballistic missiles for 8 years. Inspections anywhere, anytime, and they never expire. Yeah, they’ll have more cash to send to Hezbollah, but I don’t see that as a meaningful change. Hezbollah never needed much to be effective and I suspect they won’t really receive much more due to this. And regardless, the other sanction nations have been telling us they need to back off, so that was going to happen no matter what.
It will be interesting to see how Congress navigates their way into supporting this, because they’re going to have to accept it.
chopper
@yodecat:
you lead an interesting life. why exactly was this Jewish person full of bees, anyway?
TaMara (BHF)
Lots of wildlife here as you’d expect. Almost daily afternoon occurrence, watching the Osprey catch his lunch in the pond.
Only lately seen wild turkeys. Promised my niece for hs graduation we’ll go on a moose/bear/mountain lion trek up in the mountains.
Suzanne
We have quail run across the roads in the more desert-parts of the city. The mom quail runs and the chicks follow in a line. And they all run at exactly the same speed. So, so charming.
Tommy
@yodecat: We have a huge pond, I guess most would call it a lake, it is a pond as you come into town. Ton of Geese. They stop traffic. I think in the ten + years I’ve lived here only 3-4 have gotten hit. People know they are there.
What is working our nerves is deer. I know many that don’t like to drive after dark if it isn’t a major highway, and that isn’t how we get around, because a car hitting at deer at 40-60 MPH is a very bad thing for both parties.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
You can borrow my border collie. When a flock of turkeys (20 or so) showed up on our front lawn, Rhea showed off her herding skills. She didn’t just chase one – she had them all lined up and marching in the same direction.
Hera, the mystery mutt, hid behind me and whined the whole time.
? Martin
@jl: Waved a gun through the window and then dragged her out. One of those urban thug turkeys.
Tara the Antisocial Social Worker
Today I had a deer bound across my path in the parking lot of a most unlikely place. Gorgeous. Alas, it didn’t stop to chat.
KS in MA
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker:
That is so cool!
wasabi gasp
I saw a squirrel.
Omnes Omnibus
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: Not the most erudite of conversationalists, deer.
Belafon
Has anyone else seen the newest attack on Planned Parenthood: http://littlegreenfootballs.com/article/44832_The_Huge_Right_Wing_Anti-Choice_Fake_Outrage_of_the_Day/comments/
Which has given us tweets from Rand Paul and Ted Cruz about eliminating PP (I’d put them in, but I’d go over the link limit).
Tommy
@Tara the Antisocial Social Worker: @wasabi gasp: Yesterday driving home from lunch with the parents, they were in town, Dad doing 60 or so (the speed limit).
Off to the right, less than 15 yards from the rural highway we were on, a doe and two young ones just eating. I don’t live in a super, super rural area but nothing close to a major metro area.
Wildlife making their own way everywhere …………
Anne Laurie
@Cathie from Canada: The animal we call moose, the Swedes call elk. Volvo’s history as a safe automobile is intimately tied to the damage a full-grown moose can do to a car, deliberately or not — it’s even become a trope.
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: I still have real trouble seeing LGF as being on the side of the angels. Too much hate for too long.
jl
@? Martin: The wild turkeys in Northern California that they imported from the Midwest long ago are really fat. They could just decide to sit down on you, and you would be toast. Not like those skinny WV things.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@wasabi gasp: I found the mother of all slugs in the backyard tonite.
Relocated Slugzilla to a neighbor’s yard (the yard that’s rented out for noisy parties, a/k/a Club Asshole).
Belafon
@Omnes Omnibus: You’re saying this from Balloon Juice?
ETA: Read the post anyway. As Alfred is about to say (and has said in the trailer): “He is not our enemy!” (or something like that)
Omnes Omnibus
@Belafon: Balloon Juice never was a hate site.
Karen in GA
I had a coworker who once got worker’s comp after being attaciked by a goose in the office parking lot and ending up with a busted arm.
jl
@Anne Laurie:
Youtube of a moose crash test. Scary!
VTI – Car vs. Elk / Moose Crash Test – Opel / Vauxhall Zafira
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGXsGtvrzz0
Mike in NC
@Belafon: Asswipe Scott Walker also brags about fighting Planned Perenthood to pander to those 27%ers.
Anne Laurie
@Tommy:
Too godsdamned much, sometimes. Took the first three of our five pets in for their yearly checkups today, and the vet tech told us the latest research update on the local coyotes is that they’re getting 42% of their diet by eating “stray” cats. There’s plenty of coyotes breeding in the less-developed areas around our raggedy blue-collar city (pop. 500,000 — “double that on workdays when the factories are open”) and they’re expanding into the more built-up, industrialized areas. The Spousal Unit is getting panicky about letting our three 15lb dogs go out in the back yard by themselves, even though the ‘dog run’ is fenced, small, and reasonably well lighted…
Omnes Omnibus
@Karen in GA: I had an uncle who took me to a farm owned by one of his friends. The friend raised geese among other things. My uncle offered me $5.00 if I would pet one of the geese. I entered the little pen ( I was about 9 or 10) and walked firmly toward the geese. They turn as one and charged me, hissing and flapping their wings. I didn’t get the money but I lived. Did I mention that I enjoy eating goose?
jl
@Omnes Omnibus:
” Balloon Juice never was a hate site. ”
Some people mistake hallucinations, free roaming dread, delusional unreasoning, unfocused panic rage and frenzy for hate. That might be the source of the confusion.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike in NC: Planned Parenthood opened a new and very nice HQ in Madison fairly recently.
La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes)
@Anne Laurie: I need to send you an update re Morticia the cat’s new(ish) forever home. She’s an instagram star now.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: Balloon Juice had and has all of that. And pet pics.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: My experiences with geese completely give the lie to the goose portion of T.H. White’s Once and Future King.
Suzanne
@jl:
These are a few of my favorite things…..
Howard Beale IV
@Belafon: The Lizards are all over this. Looks like the perps of this may have violated some laws and may face a lawsuit or two.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Coltrane or Andrews?
Belafon
@Howard Beale IV: That would be nice. I just kind of figured this would be something this group would also be incensed about.
mai naem mobile
Anybody notice that the most strenuous critics of the Iran deal were all big cheerleaders for the Iraq War? Have Chuckles Todd, Jake Tapper, Halperin or Fournier pointed this out?
Omnes Omnibus
@mai naem mobile: Let’s just say that you are not the only one.
? Martin
@mai naem mobile: Why would they? Weren’t they all Iraq cheerleaders themselves?
Some guy
Boston Mt. Of Snow declared officially melted. Today. Announced by the Mayor. Contest winner to be announced tomorrow.
Amir Khalid
In other news, Whoopi Goldberg has quit defending Bill Cosby against allegations of rape.
redshirt
I had like 8-10 Mama’s and like 40-50 turkey babies on my front lawn the other day. It was impressive – like out of Jurassic Park.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I would like to say Coltrane, but I was definitely one of those little girls that watched The Sound of Music all the time, and sang along with Julie. I do love the Coltrane version, though.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: What happened to you? You used to be cool.
Unrelated: VH-1 is showing Purple Rain.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Story of my life.
At least I admit that I fucking suck at life.
Omnes Omnibus
@efgoldman: Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentations of their women.
Suzanne
@efgoldman: That was fun. Like poking badgers with spoons. Speaking of, where’s Tommy?
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Spoons?
danielx
@jl:
Are you absolutely, positively sure you weren’t looking at RedState when you wrote this? Usually the panic rage in these parts is pretty focused.
Edit:
@Suzanne: I think you’re still cool.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Harmless yet irritating.
(Like your mom.)
Sorry. Could not resist.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s an Eddie Izzard joke.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I actually have a mostly non-irritating mom.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Okay, fine. Like my mom.
(You are fucking up a perfectly cromulent yo momma joke. Christ.)
@danielx: Dawwww, thank you.
Don’t be fooled, though. I am old and boring.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: I know. It was fun.
Brachiator
@? Martin:
Could Congress reject it and play presidential campaign chicken? They could claim that a Republican president will be able to get a better deal, so rejecting the deal is the patriotic thing to do.
I should try to read more analyses of the negotiations. I still don’t know if it is a good deal, or even the best deal possible. I’m hopeful, and tend to think that Kerry and the State Department did a great job. However, I don’t know whether the deal gives Iran room to quietly violate it. Still, I think that the deal creates a possibility of lessened hostilities, and that’s a start.
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: It’s an agreement not a treaty. Congress can’t actually do much.
ETA: You can start here.
danielx
@Suzanne:
Good, we have much in common. Boring is good, though, count your blessings. My daughter was watching the fucking Berenstain Bears this evening; after ten minutes of being unable to mentally tune out the teewee I was rapidly losing the will to live.
SiubhanDuinne
Too tired to write much, but it was a great meet-up in Washington, DC. There were several people we were hoping for who ended up not being able to come for one reason or another; but we also had a few unexpected people stop by, and they were wonderful surprises. Full report, nyms of the guilty, and maybe even a photo or two to follow (once we figure out how to photoshop so as to minimize upper-arm flab and a multitude of chins).
A terrific evening. Many thanks to everyone who came out tonight.
Suzanne
@efgoldman: Well, thank you. On a good day, I love what I do, and on a bad day (which don’t come often), I tolerate it okay. So I am very blessed in the career department. I am actually leading a pretty high-profile project right now. I can’t talk about it until construction starts, but I will share the renderings. Would love to see what y’all think. It’s funny how my conception of money is changing in this job. I hear “$30 million budget” and think “Crap, that’s nothing. I can do that in my sleep.”
My Spawn is playing her trumpet and it seriously sounds just like a fart.
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: Did Steep show up and do a Cossack dance on the table?
Suzanne
@danielx: If the Berenstein Bears were fucking, that would actually be super-awesome.
Mine are hooked on Gravity Falls and Bob’s Burgers right now. I have elected to show them things that may be inappropriate for their age but are actually funny, so that I don’t have to be annoyed.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus: Thanks. I liked how the author of the piece accused the New York Times of inaccurate reporting and fear mongering, and backed up his accusations with evidence.
Suzanne
@SiubhanDuinne: JEALOUS! I would love to meet the BJ team. Like your mom. Heh heh heh.
Are you going to be in this neck of the woods anytime soon? We’ve never pulled our shit together for a desert southwest meetup, but we would definitely do so in your honor.
srv
They should remake Sound of Music for the Tea Party era, where a real American has to flee liberal brownshirts and Obama’s dictatorship. Might have to rename Maria to a more Christian name.
Omnes Omnibus
@srv:
Okay, well played.
Brachiator
More evidence that the “mainstream media” is mutating into something dominated by the Internet and social media. From a mashable story:
http://mashable.com/2015/07/14/facebook-dominates-political-news/
KG
@Tommy: just answered you in the dead thread about alt tv and sports. everything i’ve been reading about the sports apps say they black out local games. but my viewing runs the spectrum: baseball, basketball (pro and college), football (pro and college), hockey, getting into soccer. I’ve got a couple of neighborhood pubs walking distance from home, but that’ll end up being more expensive.
? Martin
@Brachiator: It’s impossible to know what the best deal possible would be. Considering that we’ve long considered Iran to be irrational, any agreement is encouraging because it signals rationality. We know a few things now:
1) The sanctions worked. They were crippling enough to get the Supreme Leader and the moderate President to a point of agreement. Their legislature will back this 100%. The Iranian hardliners are in the military, not in the legislature (roughly the opposite of the US).
2) If they were really motivated to cheat on the deal, why spend 2 years grinding this out? Why not just accept the deal, get the sanctions lifted, and then cheat? What’s the difference? My guess is that they’ve decided that a nuke doesn’t gain them anything any longer. ISIS is out there wrecking the place without nukes, and that’s a much bigger problem. That they agreed after this time suggests they will abide by the deal under the current leadership. The Iranian public continues to moderate. Leadership has to follow that to some degree.
3) The other partners in the deal were done with the sanctions. China’s growth is slowing and they need Iran’s oil on the market. France, UK and Germany are all seeing slowing economies and need both the oil and the trade. Russia needs everything. They’ve been telling us that the sanctions needed to yield results or they were going to back off. So there was no better deal to be had because the pressure for a deal was about to come off. Had we gone in with GOP demands, the other 5 nations would have dropped their sanctions in a heartbeat. Per the GOP, the only remaining way out of the sanctions would be to break-out to a nuke. Once they get there, the bombing option is off the table, and we have no better way of dealing with them than we do with North Korea. And that’s precisely the calculation that NK made when Bush stopped negotiating with them. What do you do – embargo them forever?
My guess is that this deal expands pretty quickly. We’ve got quite a few shared interests now. It’d be nice to see relations restored before 1/2017. Not talking to them wasn’t getting us anywhere.
? Martin
@srv: They’d be fleeing the death panels. All of the songs would be about guns:
My Favorite Calibers
22 going on 38
How Can Open-Carry Survive
Brachiator
@? Martin:
I’ve never considered Iran to be irrational, and any government official who believed this is a fool. Nations pursue their own national interest. Some pursuits may be wrongheaded or self-defeating, but rarely is irrational.
I agree with you that the sanctions worked, and France, Germany, Russia and China may have had reasons for wanting to see sanctions lifted.
Lots of interesting points. We will see how this all plays out.
Ruckus
When I worked in Westerville, OH we would see deer crossing 4 lane roads in the middle of town, in the middle of traffic in the middle of the day. They lived in a big city park a couple of blocks from work. Ate all the vegetation up to about 5 feet, whole park looked like it had been over trimmed by elves. Every so often the herd had to be thinned out, the park wouldn’t feed them all. The meat was given to local orphanages. I don’t think that people understood that deer copulate like bunnies. And often too.
Ruckus
@Mike in NC:
He’s not pandering. He’s a true believer. However he can be bought.
Tree With Water
I’ve yet to have a blue jay attempt to intimidate me- or if one has, I didn’t notice- but a few of them on occasion have made an ostentatious show of letting me know that I didn’t intimidate them, either. Which is OK with me- we’re neighbors and anyway I wouldn’t think of doing such a thing. My deer friends understand that all too well. In fact, a doe and her two fawns paid my yard a visit at dusk tonight to chow down on fallen plums from my tree.
Anne Laurie
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): I’d love that! So glad Morticia has the home she deserves…
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Went up to your garden today, no Amir! Anyway, got some nice pics: Amir’s Garden & ‘Taco Peak’.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus: Drink their booze, fuck their women and vote against them in the morning.
seaboogie
@La Caterina (Mrs. Johannes): Ahhh, yessss….slug-flinging into a neighbor’s yard – I remember it well. My own dog’s poop seemed too aggressive, but slugs…oh yeah. And I used to pick snails off the side of the house and fling them into the street, and then hear the “pop, pop, pop” as a car drove by.
I am normally all “ahimsa”, but it when it finally came down to womano-a-sluggo, I decided to get honest about it. No poisonous slug bait – just the dandelion fork and me v. slugs.
Unfortunately, the same direct action does not work with ants, one (and always only one – Argentine tiny one) is navigating the screen on my laptop, day and night. Prolly looking for the Appalachian Trail to hike with Sanford.
Tenar Darell
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m telling you, they’re dinosaurs, for sure! I stay wary and away from them while walking near water.
Hunter
We have geese in Lincoln Park, at North Pond, who graze on the lawns. Periodically, they will cross Stockton Drive, which runs through the Park, to graze on another section of lawn. Traffic stops — even the buses — until they make their way across the road at their own very deliberate pace.