Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

The way to stop violence is to stop manufacturing the hatred that fuels it.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Stop using mental illness to avoid talking about armed white supremacy.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

Dear elected officials: Trump is temporary, dishonor is forever.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

“woke” is the new caravan.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

People are complicated. Love is not.

DeSantis transforming Florida into 1930s Germany with gators and theme parks.

When we show up, we win.

You are here: Home / Nature & Respite / Birdwatching / Bald Jay (Open Thread)

Bald Jay (Open Thread)

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This blue jay is a regular at one of my feeders and birdbaths. I don’t know what happened to its crest and head feathers:

The rest of the plumage looks fine:

Kinda looks like a cross between a blue jay and a vulture with that ‘do. Maybe the bird found a knothole to hide in from the hurricane, but the refuge wasn’t quite large enough to pull its head in, and Irma snatched it bald-headed? Seems unlikely. At any rate, I hope it’s nothing serious (or contagious!).

What are y’all up to today?

I’m meeting my sister for lunch pretty soon at an Asian restaurant that neither of us has tried before. It is reputed to have a dish that is very hot. We’re going to test that claim and our digestive fortitude, if we don’t chicken out.

Not sure what we’re going to do after that. Everyone around here is still recovering from the week’s hurricane craziness. There’s a significant football game on, so we’ll watch that, I suppose, but I feel uncharacteristically detached from it all.

Open thread!

Reader Interactions

118Comments

  1. 1.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    “Lovely plumage, the Norwegian Blue.”

    I’m just chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool at the farmers’ market. Though it won’t be quite as cool when they take this tent down. Glad to see Sarasota is already back on its feet though.

  6. 6.

    Amir Khalid

    Which Asian cuisine does that restaurant serve? Asia’s a pretty big place, and its cuisine varies a lot.

  7. 7.

    Omnes Omnibus

    My dad, brother, and niece are in town for a soccer tournament, so I will have house guests. Getting ready to head out to watch her play in a few minutes.

  9. 9.

    Ohio Mom

    I’m puttering around the house, trying to tie up a few home projects’ loose ends, and gently nudging Ohio Son to get cracking on his homework. If he makes any headway, we’ll go out for dinner. Ohio Dad is spending the first part of the day running errands.

    All of this seems a waste of a beautiful day but it all needs doing.

    I hope that Blue Jay recovers.

  10. 10.

    Kathleen

    In Minneapolis waiting for my cousins to pick me up. I haven’t seen them since the early 60’s. Spent a beautiful day with high school classmates yesterday. They’re still the brilliant, passionate, talented Democrats I knew 50 years ago. Seeing them did my heart a world of good,

  11. 11.

    Mnemosyne

    @Achrachno:

    I wouldn’t be surprised is the stress of the hurricane caused an abnormal molt — it’s not uncommon for other animals to lose their hair or fur when under stress.

    While I was in Lake Arrowhead, I saw a ton of Steller’s Jays (not my photo, swiped from someone else’s blog). They’re the only bluejay west of the Rockies that has a crest.

  13. 13.

    debit

    My mom was just diagnosed with non hodgkin’s lymphoma. Had a bone marrow aspiration yesterday, and a PET scan today, with results coming in next week. My dad said the initial diagnosis is not awesome, but I guess we’ll see what the results tell us. I knew, logically, that my parents were most likely going to die before me, but I had assumed it was far enough into the future that I wasn’t going to have to deal with it for a good long while. Coming to terms with that has been difficult.

  17. 17.

    debit

    @Laura:
    @debbie:

    Thanks guys. I’m going to stop being morbid and weepy and go build some compost bins, then take dogs for a nice long walk if the rain holds off.

  18. 18.

    Nicole

    @debit: I’m really sorry. I lost my mom when I was ten, and my dad when I was 44. It’s no fun. That said, don’t start grieving until you know the prognosis and see how she responds to treatement. Cancer is an unpredictable disease; people who are given years are gone in weeks but plenty of people who are given weeks are around for years.

    But when it happens, and I hope it will still be well into the future for you, you will get past it. You will.

  20. 20.

    joel hanes

    @debbie:

    blue jays, but that shrieking

    They do have a very musical whistle, and a lovely call that’s less often connected with them (the fourth, bottom “Call” recording)

  22. 22.

    Corner Stone

    We have a set of three jays that all fly around together all over my back porch and yard. It’s weird because most of the time they seem to be playing dominance games. One of them is slightly larger so I can tell “him” but the other two seem to be like twins. So I am not sure what their romantic situation is currently.

  24. 24.

    Old Dan and Little Anne

    Anyone have any advice in keeping little woodpeckers from pecking holes in the side of my house? Fucking bastards. When I hear them go out and throw water water in their direction.

  25. 25.

    Lapassionara

    I saw a robin once that had lost all its tail feathers. It was dragging itself along the low spot between our lawn and the shrubbery. I went in the house and looked on the web for info on birds without tail feathers. Turns out, birds can still fly even without tail feathers and they grow back fairly quickly. I was relieved, and when I went back outside, the bird was no where to be seen.

  30. 30.

    Ajabu

    Now that we have an open thread I want to follow up to several responses to my comment a few days ago re: my friendship with Flip Wilson (whom I always called “Clerow” – his given name.)

    I’m responding to everyone’s remarks by nym:

    Elizabelle: No, Geraldine was a creation for the TV show. Initially it was just an unnamed generic Black female voice – one of a kind that all Black folks are familiar with from friends & family. The dress & makeup came later but the attitude was always there. eg: Christopher Columbus: “I’m here to discover America. I’m going to discover y’all.” Generic woman: “We don’t want to be discovered. You better discover your ass away from here.”

    dexwood: Yes, my buddy became wealthy and retired early so he could indulge all his various hobbies. Glad you got the opportunity to hang with him.

    Brachiator: I agree that he’s kind of being forgotten. Probably because he wasn’t loud & vulgar in his comedy (a trend that has accelerated with a bunch of essentially untalented comedies who just curse, apparently, for effect) Flip wasn’t shy about cursing or sexual content but it had to have context. Comedy wasn’t funny to him. He studied it endlessly. He seemed to have a PhD in what worked, what didn’t. And they can try to forget him but he was and remains the FIRST BLACK SUPERSTAR.

    Miss Bianca: Geraldine was funny, yes. But nothing compares to sitting in Flip’s dressing room talking when he had just come offstage and was still in the dress & makeup. It was kind of surreal…

    AND, for all of you – my favorite Flip Wilson memory:
    As he started getting national exposure (Tonight Show, Laugh-In, etc.) he was still working clubs, but more upscale. One night I took a date to see him & when we were sitting at the table he kept tapping me on the leg and handing me $20 bills.
    When my date went to the restroom I asked him what it was about. He replied, “I know these places are expensive. I appreciate you supporting me. I’m doing good so I want to defray your cost.” And then, with a comedic pause, he added,”And if you ever have a hit record you owe me all this fucking money.”

    As I said, I still miss him.

  32. 32.

    Another Scott

    @Achrachno: There’s a male Cardinal around here that was completely bald earlier. Quite striking.

    Thanks for the explanation.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  33. 33.

    barbequebob

    Clearly it is a hybrid between blue jay and vulture in which the only feature of the vulture that shows is the lack of feathers in head region.

    just kidding

  34. 34.

    trollhattan

    While Scott Pruitt has his thoughts…
    “To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,” Mr Pruitt told CNN.

    “To discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there’s the… place (and time) to do that, it’s not now.”

    Scripps Institute has other thoughts, thoughts that should scare your virtual pants off.

    Climate scientists have worked for years to calculate how a warmer atmosphere might impact human life on Earth.

    Now scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have published new calculations that find a small potential for global warming of such significance, it could wipe out life on Earth.

    The paper, published Thursday says, there is a one in 20 chance of catastrophic change by 2050, which would mean most people would have problems adapting to the change in climate. There is a smaller chance of an existential change, meaning it would wipe out humanity.

    “When we say 5 percent-probability high-impact event, people may dismiss it as small but it is equivalent to a one-in-20 chance the plane you are about to board will crash,” Veerabhadran Ramanathan, lead study author and a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at Scripps said in a press release. “We would never get on that plane with a one-in-20 chance of it coming down but we are willing to send our children and grandchildren on that plane.”

  37. 37.

    Achrachno

    @Another Scott: I found a bit more, on what I think is the likely explanation:

    Feather mites: The most common symptom of feather mites in birds such as blue jays, cardinals, and various other species is bald, featherless heads. When they are preening or bathing, the birds are unable to reach the head and neck area and the parasites are able to destroy the head feathers.
    Common Bird Parasites & Diseases – Mass Audubon
    massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/birds/common-bird-parasites-diseases

    I remember from years ago, when I raised birds while in HS, that mites could be a problem in aviaries, and that baldness could be a result. My memory was a bit dim because I didn’t have first hand experience with the problem, but had heard it existed. Apparently an issue in the wild too.

  38. 38.

    trollhattan

    @Ajabu:
    Wonderful stories, thanks!

    Wilson did permeate popular culture in the ’60s and ’70s. Small example: Aretha pays him homage on “Live at Fillmore West” by introducing Ray Charles “I just met RAY CHARLES!” before their duet. He also inadvertently coined WYSIWYG.

  40. 40.

    d58826

    Hillary’s book has drawn the usual attention from the usual suspects. As I said in an earlier thread if she was the person Der Fuhrer shot in Times Square, the VSP would blame her for the resulting police presence.

    But this post on VOX kind of sums up the problems she faced as a candidate

    Hillary Clinton’s “coal gaffe” is a microcosm of her twisted treatment by the media
    She navigated a hall of mirrors.

    It would go from a ‘thing’ to the ‘thing is a scandal’ to how she ‘failed to address the thing/scandal’. That her political opponents in the GOP would try and gin up a scandal is part of the game but the media is supposed to separate the wheat from the chaff and in 2016 all the did was throw more chaff in the air.

    vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/15/16306158/hillary-clinton-hall-of-mirrors

  41. 41.

    hitchhiker

    I’m in Berlin — later will get some photos to Alain, but I wanted to say that a couple of nights ago I got to have dinner with some folks from mr. hitchhiker’s office. One guy from Rome, two from Florence, one from Ukraine, one from Mumbai, and one from Moscow — plus us Seattleites.

    They’re techies, all 40-ish, all currently living in Berlin except us. I wanted to quiz the f*ck out of them, and it took me until halfway thru dinner to get my nerve up and straight out bring up the name of Putin.

    Mr Moscow told me that most people in Russia don’t really like him, BUT they like being able to get jobs and move around the world freely, which he gets credit for. Mr Ukraine was silent.

    He also said that Trump is attractive. The entire table groaned and gaped.

    Berlin IS AMAZING.

  43. 43.

    debit

    Thanks, everyone. I’m kind of a wreck, my dad is kind of a wreck, but my mom is a freaking rock. Moms: tougher than you think.

  44. 44.

    Fair Economist

    @trollhattan cites:

    “When we say 5 percent-probability high-impact event, people may dismiss it as small but it is equivalent to a one-in-20 chance the plane you are about to board will crash,” Veerabhadran Ramanathan, lead study author and a distinguished professor of climate and atmospheric sciences at Scripps said in a press release. “We would never get on that plane with a one-in-20 chance of it coming down but we are willing to send our children and grandchildren on that plane.”

    I’ve got about a 50% chance of still being alive then so it’s not just my descendants on that plane.

  45. 45.

    JGabriel

    NYTimes: The Nun With a Chain Saw, and Other People We Met During Irma

    You just know someone’s going to make a video game now with a chain-saw wielding nun as the main protagonist.

    And a movie: Nun With A Chain Saw!

    – After an afternoon of clearing brush, Mother Superior Mary returns to find her nunnery has been massacred by vampire zombies. Join this chain-saw toting hot mama for god as tracks down and dismembers the undead demons who desecrated her faith!

  47. 47.

    efgoldman

    @debit:

    Thanks, everyone. I’m kind of a wreck, my dad is kind of a wreck, but my mom is a freaking rock.

    FWIW, my dad died of non-Hodgkins… at 89, after ten years of major remissions.

  48. 48.

    Mary G

    @debit: My dad died when I was 11 of non-Hodgkins after 5 years of fighting it. The asshole oncologist told my mom when she ran into him a couple of years later that it was now curable. I hope the tests come out well and she has a full recovery. I will keep her in my prayers.

  49. 49.

    Roger Moore

    @trollhattan:

    While Scott Pruitt has his thoughts…
    “To have any kind of focus on the cause and effect of the storm; versus helping people, or actually facing the effect of the storm, is misplaced,” Mr Pruitt told CNN.

    “To discuss the cause and effect of these storms, there’s the… place (and time) to do that, it’s not now.”

    Why is it that right after a shooting is the wrong time to talk about gun control, and right after a hurricane is the wrong time to talk about global warming, but right after a bombing is a perfect time to talk about terrorism?

  53. 53.

    Denali

    @debit,

    I know everyone is different, but a friend of mine was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins in about 2000 and after 16 years is enjoying his grandkids and has a great quality of life. He is now 71. So hang in there with hope.

  54. 54.

    Tazj

    @debit: Hoping for the best results for your mom. It’s so hard when you are worried about your parents even when you are an adult. You think that you should for whatever reason, be prepared, but you never really are.

    I’m just sitting here waiting for my son’s soccer game to start.I’m an old soccer mom, I guess.

  55. 55.

    eclare

    @debit: So sorry to hear, fuck cancer. Kind of going through the same with my parents, it’s a new feeling, not one that I recommend.

  57. 57.

    Ohio Mom

    @debit: what@Nicole: said.

    As someone who is still taking meds for a cancer four years ago, I can say that yes, the word Cancer is very frightening. But it is a very complex disease and its course can be full of surprises.

    Also, if your or your parents’ anxiety gets in the way of everyday life, ask for something. When I told my PCP that I couldn’t eat or hardly sleep, her reaction was along the lines of, “Silly me, I should have thought to offer you Ativan last week at the start of this all.” There’s no shame in a little pharmaceutical help over the humps.

    Pulling for your mom, dad and you!

  58. 58.

    Corner Stone

    @Tazj:

    I’m just sitting here waiting for my son’s soccer game to start. Old soccer mom, I guess.

    I feel kinda bad for soccer mom’s. Used to be the most critical voting demographic that ever existed. Then it went to Security Moms. Then for a brief bit to Soccer Dads (I think). Then it was WWC that only mattered. Hmmm, come to think of it, it seems like only white people ever actually mattered to the media…

  61. 61.

    CaseyL

    @debit: The good news is that cancer treatments have come a very long way, even just in the last few years: I know more cancer survivors than I know people didn’t survive it. So hopefully your Mom will come through this OK!

  62. 62.

    MomSense

    @debit:

    I’m really sorry, debit. I know how it feels. ((((((Debit)))))

    Today I’m doing a ton of chores and laundry. Hopefully I’ll get a good hike with the pup later. Tomorrow I head to my dad’s house to spend some time just chilling on the porch, relieve my step mom, and do some serious cooking so they have dishes to heat up during the week.

  63. 63.

    Ohio Mom

    @debit: My other piece of hardwon advice is to be careful when you google. Medical science is advancing pretty quickly these days and a lot of what you read will be outdated.

    This is especially true of survival rates, which take a long time to amass and are by definition outdated — they are counting people who had treatment ten, fifteen, twenty years ago, when the treatment protocols were not as fine-tuned as they are today.

  64. 64.

    Achrachno

    @Roger Moore: “Why is it that right after a shooting is the wrong time to talk about gun control, and right after a hurricane is the wrong time to talk about global warming, but right after a bombing is a perfect time to talk about terrorism?”

    It’s an incomprehensible mystery!

  65. 65.

    Shell

    Can birds suffer from Male Pattern Baldness?

    Baked a chocolate cake for my best friends birthday today. Its been a wile since Ive made a layer cake; it looks good but having four eggs in the batter, I thought they might have risen a bit more.
    Some cherry preserves spread between the layers and chocolate ganache smoothed on top as the frosting.

  68. 68.

    dmsilev

    @debit: So sorry to hear that. My dad went through the exact same thing this past winter, and thankfully seems to have responded well to treatment. I can go into detail with some of the issues we ran across etc. if you’d like (either here or by email; dmsilev at gmail).

  69. 69.

    Gator90

    Life is getting back to normal in South Florida after an evacuation sojourn in South Alabama, which reminded me that as long as you’re white, white folks in Alabama are the nicest goddam people in the world. Hopefully, the Florida-Tennessee rivalry will get back to normal (i.e. with Florida winning) today.

  70. 70.

    dmsilev

    @debit: A couple of general things for interpreting the first round of test results. The aspiration and subsequent biopsy will tell the oncologist whether your mom’s cancer will respond to treatment with Rituxin (also known as Rituxinab). You really want this answer to be ‘yes’; this drug (which is given as part of the chemo regimen) has made such a huge difference in cure rates that there’s a bright line in the medical literature (“before R” and “after R”). The PET scan will tell whether the cancer has spread and if so how far. Obviously you want that to be “no” or at least “not very far”. It also tells how intense or strong a given node is; “uptake values” above about ten is more or less the threshold for highly active tumors.

  73. 73.

    rikyrah

    Peanut decided to become a cheerleader. Don’t know how I feel about it. But, today is homecoming. I am at the game, watching her cheer ?

  74. 74.

    efgoldman

    @rikyrah:

    Peanut decided to become a cheerleader. Don’t know how I feel about it.

    Marching band will do much more for her in the long run

  77. 77.

    Mel

    @debit: I’m so, so sorry.

    No matter how prepared we are, it’s a shock to the mind and heart when a parent gets ill. Please be sure to take extra good care of yourself, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when you or your family need it.

    Sending hugs to you and your Mom and Dad.

  79. 79.

    Thoughtful David

    That’s just molt. Birds are doing a complete plumage molt in August and September. Every year some birds seem to get in a hurry and molt everything at once.
    Don’t worry about it. He’ll be in fine plumage in a couple of weeks.

  80. 80.

    Ruckus

    @debit:
    Always hard with parents. Best of luck to your mom.
    Some of the things they can do these days are amazing and some of the treatments are not near as bad as they used to be and work far better. This is coming from a cancer patient. Didn’t have what your mom has but have seen and heard a lot, and been through quite a bit of fun myself. Don’t give up, be positive. It helps a lot, even if it is difficult some days to do. And because I haven’t said this today, FUCK Fucking Cancer.

  81. 81.

    Ruckus

    @debbie:
    You needed my mom. Her nagging was never shrill, just relentlessly nice. You never got angry until long after you’d given in and realized it. And then it was way too late.

  82. 82.

    HeleninEire

    Back in Dublin after my birthday journey to Galway. Thrilled to be home. And speaking of “home”, I was in NY in February and told everyone I’d be back in October. I figured 8 months was a good timeframe to go back. But ya know what? I am just not feeling it. I love my NY family and friends but this is home now.

  83. 83.

    germy

    So is the america first rally at DC “sparsely attended” or the biggest thing ever? I can hear NPR playing in the kitchen, and an announcer said it’s a massive rally, one of the “largest of its kind” while I just saw it described as “sparse” on twitter.

  84. 84.

    Ella in New Mexico

    FYI: Son the Bird Biologist says Jays seasonally molt, and it’s usually worse if it’s their first one when they’re juveniles. He’s seen lots of them do it, apparently.

  85. 85.

    Ruckus

    @Ajabu:

    ”And if you ever have a hit record you owe me all this fucking money.”

    I can see why he’d be a friend. Who wouldn’t like someone with a closing line like that?

  86. 86.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    one of the “largest of its kind”

    This could be quite a term of art, given that most right-wing and pro-Trump rallies have been sparsely attended. If they got 1,000 people rather than the 10 who showed up in Boston, that would make it the largest of its kind, but still pathetic compared to the Women’s March.

  88. 88.

    Mel

    @Ruckus: Yes to everything you said, especially “don’t give up”. Some days it takes hope, some days anger, some days you absolutely run out of steam and have to have someone hold you up (emotionally , physically, sometimes both). Whatever it takes.

  92. 92.

    Mnemosyne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    I seem to get a LOT of sign-up type stuff from people using MailChimp. From that, I would infer that it’s reasonably simple to use.

    ETA: “Sign-up type stuff” meaning email lists that I’ve voluntarily signed up for, not spam emails. If that helps. And unless you have something very urgent to tell your readers, I wouldn’t send anything more often than weekly, and probably more like monthly.

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    @debit:
    Had five dealings with the Big C with immediate family. Three gave me over a decade and a half with family, while the other two were brutal. I think you know what I am hoping for you and your family.

  95. 95.

    Raven

    I just returned from a 2 hour ” tour” of my high school and I am blown away! It was lily-white 50 years ago but now it is incredibly diverse. The principal conducted the tour and was wonderful. What came through most was a commitment to preparing students to be lifelong learners! It warmed an adult educators heart.

  98. 98.

    Another Scott

    @Roger Moore: Yup.

    I wish someone would ask Price and LaPierre and these other delicate snowflakes – “Um, isn’t trying to shut down a conversation the very definition of ‘political correctness’?”

    It’s always projection with them – always.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  100. 100.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    MSNBC covering the pro-trump rally in DC– they seem to be taking great care to not mention crowd size

    Ah, there we go: “Almot a thousand people at its peak”. Looks like a few dozen to me

  101. 101.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    MSNBC covering the pro-trump rally in DC– they seem to be taking great care to not mention crowd size

    Ah, there we go: “Almot a thousand people at its peak”. Looks like a few dozen to me

    ETA: Washington Post reporter

    Peter Jamison‏Verified account @ PeteJamison 2h2 hours ago
    The pro-Trump “Mother of All Rallies” happening on the mall right now appears to have attracted between 200 and 300 people.

  103. 103.

    Raven

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):There is a large Islamic center and school right next door and, from what the principal said, they work together a good bit.

    “Islamic Foundation is a non-profit organization located in Villa Park, IL, was founded in 1974 and since then has been serving the western suburbs community of Chicago. Under the umbrella of Islamic Foundation, is a Mosque, Islamic Foundation School Full Time School (Pre-K to 12), Saturday and Sunday Schools. Islamic Foundation is under the governance of a Board of Trustees”

  104. 104.

    Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes

    Getting ready to go to tailgate at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium ahead of tonight’s Louisville-Clemson match. We’re gonna get beat badly, but I have to go cheer – ESPN is here for gameday.

    Watching Predator for a bit. Forgot how tight that movie was.

  105. 105.

    Ruckus

    @Mel:
    I was two years from original “We need to do a biopsy,” to the end of treatment. That ended 10 months ago. I have to wait till 4 days before xmas to possibly find out if we’ve been successful. This stuff is long haul stuff most of the time. Cancer is your body gone crazy. There may be an outside protagonist or cause or it may just be biology gone wrong. Doesn’t matter, but it takes time to set it right. And a positive attitude and not giving up is paramount. The treatments are better, the medications are better, and yet they are still trying to kill off parts of your body, which is what cancer is, that you don’t want without doing any damage to the ones you’d like to keep. I went 9 weeks, every week day, for radiation treatment. The actual treatment was the easy part. By far, at least for me. The stress of will it work, the effect it has on your everyday life, the waiting to find out if it worked or what comes next, the knowledge that you have cancer, that’s the hard part. I have a great oncologist, he works hard to keep me focused and positive. Because it’s my body’s response to the treatment that affects the outcome. The treatment is the trigger for the body to recognize that it has made a mistake and correct it. Yes the treatment/medication does kill the cancer but your body has to respond positively to that. Cancer treatment does not work in a vacuum, you aren’t just along for the ride. This is not a foreign object, a virus or bacteria that you’ve run into. This is you, gone wild.

  106. 106.

    HeartlandLiberal

    The blue jay is molting. The molt (loss and replacement of feathers, most birds once a year, some times two or three times), usually is orderly, i.e. spread gradually over the body, and not noticeable, but sometimes the entire head will molt at once, producing the effect you see. Cardinals are notorious for this, I see several every year on our upper deck, which we basically have turned into a six by four foot bird feeder, with seeds on the floor, the rails, and two suet cakes hanging out for the woodpeckers.

    But then again, maybe hurricane Irma ripped the feathers off his head??

  107. 107.

    efgoldman

    @Raven:

    There is a large Islamic center and school right next door and, from what the principal said, they work together a good bit.

    With all the bullshit trickling down from the WH, it’s good to be reminded that not everyone in this country is an asshole.

  109. 109.

    Raven

    @efgoldman: Yea, one dude felt compelled to tell me that he is “anything but liberal”. I told him I didn’t come here to argue with people. I think he had a stroke or some kind of neurological issue so he’s kind of pitiful. All during the tour I kept think the principal must really have bugged him with all that inclusiveness bullshit.

  110. 110.

    No Drought No More

    I once heard a bird in distress outside my front door here in N.Cal surrounded by redwood forest. Turned out to be a blue jay not quite in the gripped claws of an eagle (or the largest hawk I’ve ever seen). . I caught the tail end of the battle, in which the blue jay made its getaway, squawking like a banshee. No telling if it lost any feathers in the struggle, but I could see a jay being so scared shitless that it lost what passes for its head of hair as a result..

  111. 111.

    Ruckus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
    It really is easier than it looks. A lot of decisions to be made, if you want to. Not so many if you find a theme that works for you. It also helps if you are trying to just have an informative blog that people stop by every so often or one like BJ that is actually pretty big and has a lot of traffic. I have two, one WP and one blogspot, that I haven’t done anything with in a long while, I customized the blogspot one a lot and did little with the WP one.

  113. 113.

    Mel

    @Ruckus: It’s so true – the treatment has to work for the individual’s body. I’m 15 years into a battle with autoimmune disease. Steroids, immune modulators, immune suppressants including transplant anti-rejection drugs – some helped a bit, some didn’t, some helped the autoimmune stuff to some extent, but caused such hideous side effects that they made me even more ill.

    Next step is trying chemotherapy – the huge barrier to the recomnended treatment is the cost.

    I agree – it’s an enormous challenge to try to keep the whole thing together – dealing with the constant uncertainty, the emotional drain, the financial toll, the changes to your ability to do everyday things: working, maintaining relationships, dealing with major changes in appearance (sounds so shallow, but you know things are not awesome when a little kid cries in the pharmacy line because you look so damned scary to them).

    I am so glad you have an oncologist that really gets it, and that you can really count on.
    I hope the news you get this December is the very best news. I hate it so much that anybody has to go through this, but it’s even worse when it’s a good person like you. Hang in there. We just have to keep our heads up and keep on, day by day.

  114. 114.

    Betty

    @debit: Along with the others here, I hope your mom gets the best news possible under the circumstances. Having gotten the news myself, I know it is a gut punch.There is progress made every day in treatment so no reason to assume the worst.

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Mel:
    Thank you.
    I hope that you can find something that helps.
    I was, not long ago so pissed that I wrote a comment that I hoped that all drumpf voters would get a diagnosis of stage IV cancer, the day their insurance lapsed. But of course they have the ACA, which allows all preexisting conditions, so they’d be OK. I forgot to put that last sentence in, seeing as how I was pissed off (I did mention that, didn’t I?)
    That autoimmune stuff is hard core. The thing that’s there to keep you well, becomes a traitor. Cancer is the something of that, your body trying to grow faster to stop the invasion of something that doesn’t exist, or maybe just for the hell of it. At least cancer can be fought a bit easier, if sometimes not any more successfully. They haven’t found out what is causing some rather bothersome symptoms that I’m having but the first thing they thought of and looked for was MS. Still having the symptoms and still no diagnosis, so the fun continues. Now I’m waiting for cardio to decide what to do with my pump. Oh well we live and suffer, or something like that. At least I’ve made it a lot farther than my cousin, who was gone at 6 months, or his mother who made it into her mid 40s with 4 kids or her father who made the same distance with 5 kids. Progress.

  118. 118.

    cynthia ackerman

    @Ajabu:

    Thanks Ajabu.

    For some reason, “the devil made me do it” has been a key meme in my life and conversations over about the last six months.

    Any thoughts, comment, anecdotes about that iconic bit of genius?

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