For whatever reason, my neighborhood has a steady stream of stray cats flowing through it at any given time. I feed them when I see them, and I’ve even managed to get a few of them to the vet to be fixed. I’m guessing word has got around that I’m a soft touch, as other local fauna are trying to get in on the act:
You can just hear her asking, like a true Brummie, “Oi, bab, got any more of them Whiskas?”
Wound up having to give our local Dems Abroad event a miss due to The Child feeling unwell this morning. Sounds like our team was able to get quite a few people to check on their registrations or request their ballots.
Meanwhile, in local politics, things aren’t going well for the new government. More about that tomorrow.
For you, this thread is open.
Baud
Time to don your red riding coat and saddle up the horses.
Rose Judson
@Baud: I don’t qualify. Not only am I an immigrant, but I’ve looked back about four generations on both sides of my family, and there aren’t any first cousins marrying as far as I can tell.
trollhattan
Cue Peter Sellers. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060200/
Luckily our coyotes don’t get as urban as, say, in L.A. Most recent encounter was on the river parkway last weekend, and he gave no fs that I was maybe ten feet away. Foxes are cuter than coyotes, to be sure, but am guessing equally naughty.
Rose Judson
@trollhattan: Our local foxes are delighted with the new housing development a few streets over, as it means more garbage bins for them to knock over and paw through every Tuesday night. They’re looking much sleeker than they did this time last year.
FelonyGovt
That fox is really cute. It’s strange to me that in England they are apparently as ubiquitous as squirrels. Here (Southern CA) we deal with coyotes. And skunks.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Weirdly, the words “Brummie” and “bab” were on my radar yesterday.
We’re rabid fans of the Great British Bake Off and its various spinoffs in other countries. I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of Balloon Juice jackals who were talking about it, especially early in Covid lockdown. New GBBO season started this week, yesterday in the US.
Alison Hammond, one of the hosts, was joking with a contestant about being a Brummie, and throwing out lines with “bab”.
VeniceRiley
My monster puppy Reggie would either bark the heck out of that fox, or try to befriend it. There is no in between.
We did just put him through a trial day with our potential vacation sitter, and he smashed it. Very lucky to get him back from her! He completely charmed her and tiny Weiner dogs, etc. He’s so gentle and sweet.
BR
I am convinced it is time to try to win the election on vibes again. This whole effort of “let’s put out policy to win over voters” is a mug’s game. People were pumped up when the campaign was all vibes and light on policy details. Let’s do that again, especially now that the policy details are out there and there’s nobody new who is going to be won over with more details.
Rose Judson
@FelonyGovt: Growing up in NE Pennsylvania, we had skunks, groundhogs, the occasional raccoon, and now and then a black bear. On exactly one occasion I saw a bobcat.
In the last few years it seems the coyote population has made a comeback there, too.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
I bet that redd foxx has a biting sense of humor
Lethe
I was working on the runway electronics in Cold Bay, AK one summer, staying at the old, old FAA housing (which was almost on the runway). Every morning a little before 6 am a fox would show up and sit quietly at the end of the building. At 6 am the local FAA tech would go for his morning jog down the runway (10,000 ft), and the fox would jog behind and next to him. After their jog the tech would go in for breakfast, and I assume the fox went off looking for his.
Never wanted to pet something so badly in my life.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@FelonyGovt: We have fox regulars in our neighborhood in southeastern PA, and I’m pretty sure the den is two houses over.
I used to spot one classic red fox on our late night dog walks. Then occasionally I would spot another animal, slightly larger and darker. I even wondered if that one might be a coyote (I only ever saw it in the dark, moving quickly), but decided ultimately that it was another fox.
Last year I had a couple of sightings of three foxes always roaming together. I suspect they were a litter of kits.
I’m back to only seeing one red fox. I don’t know if it’s the original or one of the kits. It seems curious about me and the dog, popping up about 20 feet away at multiple times on the walks.
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
“the desert fox was an extraordinary bold and clever opponent”
Winston Churchill
Rose Judson
@David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch: I see what you did there, sir.
VeniceRiley
@BR: I’d rather have a beer with Kamala Harris. Remember that relatability test moving goalpost? I thought it was stupid at the time, but now, not so much. I’d never have a beer and a chat with Trump. *Shuddering
rikyrah
I am trying the TikTok Birria Ball today.
It is in the crockpot now🤔🤔
HinTN
Tony Jay, white courtesy phone for a message.
BR
@VeniceRiley:
Exactly. Harris and Walz are so relatable. We’re lucky to have both of them as candidates. I keep hoping the campaign will get them out there in more fun events for the last month of the campaign.
Almost Retired
@FelonyGovt: it’s amazing we have so many coyotes in our neighborhood (very near yours). Solid urbanization all around far from any woodland habitat. I think they have bus passes.
rikyrah
😳😳😳🤔🤔🤔
Justin Brannan (@JustinBrannan) posted at 5:43 PM on Fri, Sep 27, 2024:
Sept 17: Under oath, Sheriff Miranda tells me and @galeabrewer that they don’t seize cash when they raid illegal weed shops.
Sept 27: @NYC_DOI says they found more than $100,000 in cash inside safes at the Sheriff’s Office HQ in Queens.
https://t.co/1SE0VFDdwm
(https://x.com/JustinBrannan/status/1839798080670925156?t=eJ-5-U7QWCy32eVoRC7GEA&s=03)
TBone
My nickname for specimens of the vulpine variety is “catdog.”
Excellent photo! 😍
PS A spat between Grandpa Walton and Johnboy is where I first heard the word vulpine.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Sept 28: @NYC_DOI says they found more than $50,000 in cash inside safes at the Sheriff’s Office HQ in Queens.
TBone
Reposting 🎶 for NYC
https://youtu.be/N8hSQ1hfOkQ
Very cute
David 🐝KHive🐝 Koch
He wasn’t getting Booooed, he was getting Booourned.
CaseyL
We have one, maybe two, coyote clans living in the greenbelt/cemetery immediately north of our townhouse complex. I live at the opposite end from there and rarely hear the coyotes.
But the other night one apparently came right over to the field by the border fence and had quite the conversation. I heard a high-pitched call over and over again, didn’t know what it was. It didn’t sound alarmed or anguished in any way, but I think at least once someone abandoned their dog there, so I decided to go have a look.
I went to the other end of the complex, right up to the border fence, and called out “Hi, Pooch! Hey, doggie! Are you okay? Do you need help?” I figured if it was a lost dog it would respond in some way, bark or whine or whatever. Instead there was a short silence and then more of the non-troubled yipping. I decided it was just a coyote taking in the evening and went back to my house.
I have an elderly cat who, in his youth and prime as the Top Cat of the Townhouses, used to roam that area, asserting his dominion over it. He is, thank all the gods, aware of his advanced age and stays inside most of the time now, only going as far as the grass field at our end of the complex (mostly staying on the porch, though). I love having wildlife nearby here in the city; but I do not want that wildlife to eat my cat, tyvm.
Rose Judson
@BR: I don’t consume a lot of US media, but it feels like the problem is less about policy stuff and more about the Other Team sucking up oxygen by lying and being weird freaks. Hopefully Tim Walz’s football appearance today, along with the debate, will help.
BR
@Rose Judson:
I agree, it is about media oxygen, but also these days the mainstream media no longer has control over these things like they used to. When Harris and Walz have gone on random podcasts or done various short video clips they go viral online and completely bypass the cable news networks. They were doing a lot of that in August but haven’t been as much lately. They can do it again — it’s just a choice the campaign seems to have made.
TBone
Maggie Smith and Carol Burnett 🎶😍
https://youtu.be/dT1YfqZeUb0
wjca
I suspect those bypass a lot of us here as well. But we are not, after all, the target audience. Obsessive/Compulsive voters that we are.
JCJ
@TBone: don’t know the origin of this, but my daughter told me foxes have been described as cat software running on dog hardware because of their behaviors.
BR
I swear some Super PAC should just run this Trump clip on loop as an ad:
https://www.tiktok.com/@booker4ky/video/7419510585970167071
BR
@wjca:
I go digging for this stuff online, and the campaign has slowed down in the last month on TikTok and other social media. My hope is that it’s on purpose, and they are creating a hunger for it that they will fill in the last month of the campaign.
West of the Rockies
@trollhattan:
Oh… that movie does not look like my cup of tea. Peter Sellers sure did like screwball comedies. What’s Up, Pussycat? I enjoyed when I first saw it on TV around 1980, but it probably hasn’t held up well.
Math Guy
@VeniceRiley: I’d like to have a beer with Kamala, but then I’d think “Why are you wasting your time having a beer with me; you’ve got work to do, so go do it!”
Dorothy A. Winsor
@rikyrah: I have vague memories of when I lived in Detroit and money fell out of the police chief’s kitchen ceiling.
HumboldtBlue
I was feeding an absolutely beautiful gray cat, and then I learned from my neighbor it was their cat, Persephone. She still gets treats and Noodles desperately wants to meet her, but she has no time for his little ass.
Noodles is very popular, however, we got out three times a day with him in his harness and he’s become a neighborhood celebrity. The ladies from the ambulance service based across the alley now have treats for him, and the ladies from the finance office next door were very sad when they came outside, and he freaked out and ran off. They were able to meet him next time around, and everyone says the same thing — “he’s so soooofffttt.”
So not only is the harness training working out like gangbusters, Noodles is a star!
TBone
@Baud: I just got the visual of Rosalind Russell on the hunt in Auntie Mame 😂
TBone
@JCJ: the resemblance is uncanny! 🤩
sab
@Rose Judson: My parents in Ohio had a woodchuck den that was occupied by a woodchuck at one end and a fox family at the other, for years.
Now I just have the occassional visiting woodchuck, coyote amd a whole family of deer. They don’t live here, they just visit.
My aunt and uncle used to do the American version of “foxhunt” where the dogs chase after an anise scented bag dragged over the course the day before. They said foxes used to watch the hunt go by, because neither the dogs nor the foxes had any idea what a real foxhunt was.
NetheadJay
Yeah, that’s a lively-looking fella. But best left out frolicking in nature.
So you’re in the Birmingham area. Know a few people in that vicinity.
Regarding the UK politics link, she’s not wrong in her criticisms of Sir Keir and his government, but I lost all sympathy for her personally when I got down to the last paragraphs and found she’s a trans hater and Linehan liker. Hope the others rebelling don’t have that kind of baggage.
TBone
@BR: I feel a thousand percent less intelligent after listening to that. It’s like a black hole for the sane and intelligent.
allium
@JCJ: conversely, it’s also said that hyenas are dog software running on cat hardware.
Lethe
@JCJ: That is an absolutely perfect description. And the dog’s happy-go-lucky disposition with the cat’s sense of humor…
JoyceH
@BR:
Oh, I dunno, I think it’s possible to do both. And I think I might be seeing Democrats do something I’ve wished for a long time they’d do.
For quite a few cycles now, Republicans have deployed a strategy that was both counter-intuitive and diabolically effective – they would attack our candidates, not on their weaknesses, but on their strengths. I mean, who would have thought the campaign of Texas Air National Guard Fortunate Son Bush would have the unmitigated gall to attack Vietnam vet war hero John Kerry on his WAR SERVICE? But they did, and yeah, it did work.
Well, according to the polls, there are two issues where Trump polls better than Harris, and sadly those are two issues that the voters say are very important to them – immigration and the economy. Of course, that polling perception that Trump would be better than Harris on either issue is utter BS, but let’s go after that. Harris has already cut Trump’s lead on the economy more than half, but let’s keep going, keep calling him a LOSER on job creation, and so on. Remind people that he personally killed the border bill because he doesn’t really want the border fixed.
You can do that and still get the vibes. But let’s do give the news organizations something else to run in their campaign updates than yet another iteration of “hard work is good work” and “when we fight, we win” – yeah, that’s great pep rally stuff, but you don’t want the uncommitted voters asking, ‘is that all there is?’
And while we’re at it, while we’re upping our good vibes, let’s also highlight the GOP bad vibes. The NYT actually covered the stupid story about VA 7th GOP candidate posing with a fake family. As a scandal it’s pretty small potatoes, but it really underscores the Weird vibes.
TBone
@HumboldtBlue: thanks for the Noodles update. I also trained my kittens with harnesses. Noah took to it like a duck to water but my tiny tornado Katrina was not having it 🤣 and it was an awful struggle. Luckily, she is so skittish that she now simply keeps our cracked-open door in sight at all times and never ventures.
rikyrah
Tampa General Hospital put up something called an Aqua Fence to protect them during the Hurricane.
here is the result 😳😳
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8RQU8CU/
Rose Judson
@NetheadJay: Honestly I’d be fine with more TERFs leaving the party. Or the island. Fuck ’em.
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
The fence in action in Tampa
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8RQxVNb/
West of the Rockies
Can anyone else not open TikTok vids? It either takes me to the app store or blocks the vid with an unworkable “slider” puzzle.
BR
@West of the Rockies:
I have to open TikTok videos on Safari on my laptop.
West of the Rockies
@BR:
I’m exclusively on my phone with BJ, so I guess I’m poop outta luck. So it goes.
Timill
@West of the Rockies: Win 11 PC & Chrome: I have to pause and restart the video to get them to play, but no problems with access.
BR
@West of the Rockies:
Yeah on a phone they’re trying to force you into their TikTok app.
Phylllis
@rikyrah: Wow. Developed in Norway — imagine that.
Shana
I’m having a lovely if damp weekend in Nashville at The Wodehouse Society’s bi-annual convention. Lots of old friends and some riveting talks on various aspects of his life and career.
Omnes Omnibus
I am back from canvassing. It shouldn’t be in the upper 70s in late September.
Sure Lurkalot
@NetheadJay:
Me, too, I was all “you go girl, speak truth to power and uproot corruption wherever it sprouts” and then pow! find out she’s got her own reprehensible problem.
TBone
@West of the Rockies: me today, but other times it works so it’s a mystery.
TBone
Excellent Video: Timothy Snyder on Trump’s “negotiating” skills as reflected in his meeting with Zelensky yesterday.
As well as further commentary:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/09/28/negotiating-101/
Sure Lurkalot
@Omnes Omnibus: Close to 90 in Denver today and 3 days next week forecasted low 90’s. It’s chill in the mornings but I’d be thrilled if it only got into the 70’s at this point.
Melancholy Jaques
@Rose Judson:
You are correct. Since he started in 2015, “The News” is What did Trump say or do today? The only way Democrats get in the mix is to react to whatever it was that Trump did or said.
I’m exaggerating, but not that much.
Tony Jay
@HinTN:
Heh.
All is proceeding exactly as you’d expect, given the qualities moral, ethical and political of the dogshit dumps running the newnewlabourinc corporate franchise opportunity.
This is who and what they are. This is what media coverage was always going to look like once their transactional deal with the UK media hit its KPI threshold. Any random ochre-daubed Palaeolithic hunter bounding across the wall of a Pyrenean cave that had been sealed off for millennia by rockfalls and silt could have told them that predators must predate, so the media’s coverage returning to “Got any scandals, comrade?” norms as soon as they got into Government was so blindingly obvious that it would take a very special kind of bone-brained self-entitlement to think that the Teflon coating of ‘Not Corbyn’ would win them endless nods and winks from the feral Press as they claimed their rewards.
But that’s who and what they are. A coterie of Wormtongues who think they’re Nazgûl.
Wankers.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Good thing you had your Ft. Benning training to fall back on.
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: Benning didn’t teach me anything about upper 70s. Mid-90s? Yeah, sure.
Geminid
@Omnes Omnibus: Have you ever gone back to Columbus?
Omnes Omnibus
@Geminid: After Airborne School? No. I have not been there since December of 1988.
piratedan
as a FYI for folks who expressed concern…. I touched base with Odie Hugh Manatee over on LGF (Little Green Footballs) and he welcomed the concern, was just taking a break from the site while we had the wigging out over the Biden shelving his campaign. For those that are on community watch.
Geminid
@piratedan: Sounds like Odie’s doing OK, and I’m glad of that.
West of the Rockies
@Omnes Omnibus:
Gonna be 96° here in NorCal this afternoon. Thankfully, climate change is a hoax.
West of the Rockies
@piratedan:
Thanks for passing that info along. I don’t think I’ve seen that Biden business in a few weeks.
Jackie
We all have to cross our fingers in unity for Walz Tues night:
May Buttigieg’s coaching give him the ammo to beat Vance! 🤞🏻🤞🏻
Omnes Omnibus
@Jackie: If you are smart, you talk up your opponent’s skills and poormouth your own prior to these things.
emrys
Apologies if someone already noted this, but I just saw Dragoncraft in John Scalzi’s pile of new books in his threads account.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I’ve had to put a few baby varmints out of their misery in the last few years thanks to my black lab. I think I finally figured out what they are due to clumps of dirt in my backyard. Voles methinks.
prostratedragon
@West of the Rockies: Me too.
I can open the ones embedded in twitter.
zhena gogolia
@Jackie: I am not worried about Walz at all. Vance is a black hole of charisma.
Phylllis
@Omnes Omnibus: My husband is from Columbus. Their downtown is really cool with a great mix of restaurants. The Riverwalk is a jewel. And then there’s Country’s BBQ.
MagdaInBlack
@Jackie: From the article:
“Their worry is that Vance is going to eviscerate the governor’s hand-to-his-heart, dad-joke persona and make Walz come across as either a moron or a raging bull, or even an out-of-whack liberal vouching for another out-of-whack liberal.”
Oh FFS, spare me.
Of course, the sources for this alleged worry are the usual un-named staffers.
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
Harris and Walz seem to be rather normal human beings. Which is the exact opposite of their opposition, both of whom seem to be anything but normal, to least anyone else recognizable as human. And one of them seems to be gaining momentum into abject senility. Rapidly into it, as in already past the entry gate.
West of the Rockies
@zhena gogolia:
I expect Vance will get in some mean girl (boy) digs that may resonate with his base, but such people have never emotionally evolved much past jr. high level anyway. For everyone else, Vance will appear dishonest and vain. Also, everyone will forget the debate about 48 hours after it’s over.
Still, I hope Walz holds his own.
3Sice
TBone
@West of the Rockies: Tim Walz’s teaching experience with teens gives me confidence in his ability to deal with the mind numbing immaturity and inhumanity of his
preydebate victim.prostratedragon
Not really a forecast of Couchman’s debate performance, however,
TBone
@prostratedragon: 😆😂🤣 advance prep certainly lacking.
Gloria DryGarden
@TBone: Good luck with your familiar; that’s worrying. I hope he’s ok.
I wish someone would explain to me how republican governors are slow rolling their disaster recovery, (so they can blame the president). I need to get better at spotting these things; could someone please explain it to me as I were in kindergarten?
Theres a lovely fiction book by Barbara Kingsolver, that highlights coyotes: “Prodigal Summer”
In Denver foxes are occasionally seen around town, coyotes can be seen on the nearby wildlife refuge. I wish I were seeing more foxes; I hear they can take out a raccoon. Maybe they already have removed the neighborhood raccoons, here’s hoping.
columbusqueen
I live in north Columbus near both I-71 & the Overbrook ravine. I’ve got possums, raccoons, foxes, a LOT of deer, & the occasional coyote. We had a raccoon camping out in our garage earlier this summer; he came out once in the afternoon when we brought groceries in.
TBone
@prostratedragon: next stop for JDivan:
TBone
@Gloria DryGarden: thank you dear heart 💜
Kingsolver is amazing 😍
3Sice
Asheville:
State of N.C. is calling for additional Federal resources.
Miki
Just finished watching War Game, on Prime.
It’s good. Frustrating, but good.
As a vet, it’s heart breaking, only because I know too well how difficult it is to maintain one’s personal integrity in the military, even if you believe in the mission but especially if you question it. A talent for nuance isn’t a valued trait in that club.
TBH, I’m pessimistic about our collective ability to push back on the treasonous violence that has established a foothold in what had been a given – the peaceful transfer of power. So many norms – institutional and political and social – have been damaged if not destroyed, and I’m not sure we’ve figured out how to politically or socially rebuild the structures that can replace them.
So, yeah. War Game is kind of a downer. But in a good way, I guess.
JoyceH
Man, I hope the Biden administration does excellent work in hurricane and flood relief, AND that every piece of equipment and box of supplies is well marked to indicate Your Federal Government At Work, otherwise the Republican governors will try to get the credit. Trump slathered his big ugly old signature all over the stimulus checks and got credit for Congress’s work. Heck, some folks have told reporters that they’re voting for Trump because HE gave them that check.
TBone
Just watched a special on local PBS/Create TV station on Slovakia and now I’m pining to go there.
Also as seen on TV today:
Double Apple Bread Pudding! Granny Smith apples bring tangy freshness to a bread pudding that’s rich with creamy custard—and Americana.
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/15043-double-apple-bread-pudding
https://www.pbs.org/video/pork-and-apples-w8TLqg/
GET IN MAH BELLY
Scout211
@TBone: Hey now, the campaign said Vance doesn’t know Wallnou so that makes it all better that he appeared on the same stage with him as a “featured guest.”
And calling Kamala Harris’s debate performance “witchcraft” and “a cult spirit” is “operating on her and through her” is . . . Well, I don’t really know what that is, other than weird and creepy. But Vance doesn’t know him! 🙄
Starfish
@BR: I am sorry, but this Trump clip is funnier.
https://twitter.com/KamalaHQ/status/1840121367670251818
Starfish
@BR: It seems like they are filling out their policy positions, asking rich people for money, and doing live events in battleground states.
TBone
@Scout211: snort! That’s the answer always given by his boss, and it always causes fact-check photo blitz bonanzas (see, i.e., Parnas, Lev). Because I’m not certain that JDivan’s image would actually appear on any type of film or even in a mirror, this technique could actually work for him.
zhena gogolia
@TBone: Slovakia is beautiful.
TBone
@Starfish: reminds me of a very off color joke “oh I just tripped and my **** fell into her.” I was surprised he didn’t actually say that during a deposition or after-court “presser.”
TBone
@zhena gogolia: I am really impressed with how un-touristy it looks, as well as the natural beauty, history, art, and CASTLES! Have you been? Plus: the Danube!
Starfish
@Jackie: Walz is not strong on debates so I would not put the bar very high for him. The best we can hope for is that J. D. Vance continues to look like a soulless ghoul, and Tim Walz looks like a normal human while up there.
Starfish
@emrys: He had a whole Big Idea post on Dragoncraft.
zhena gogolia
@TBone: I was there many years ago.
TBone
@zhena gogolia: oh I bet your memories are amazing! If I ever get the health/cats/hubby ducks in a row long enough to plan such a trip I will call on you for pointers. I’ve been to Europe twice but I’d love to see into the heart of that central, mostly untrammeled spot!
zhena gogolia
@TBone: I don’t have many pointers — I was on a college 3-month camping trip, and we were on our way from Zakopane, Poland, to Prague, and we just stopped in Slovakia to find some of my relatives. I didn’t get to any cities or castles! Just pretty scenery in the Low Tatras.
VeniceRiley
What is it with dogs loving to roll in fox poop? It’s a thing. Why? WHY? A mystery as deep as certain populations if voters rolling in certain candidates …..
Bill Arnold
@Rose Judson:
I am work-from-home at the moment, and from my office space during the day, see a groundhog family, rabbits, several species of birds using a birdbath right outside and a hummingbird feeder, wild turkeys, deer, an occasional red fox. A few local recognizable cats (no traffic). Voles and snakes are hard to spot.
The skunks and raccoons are at night. Also very occasional coyotes; I scare those away. Have seen one mink and one young bear.
Citizen Alan
Did anyone else read that in the voice of Gene Rayburn talking to Charles Nelson Reilly, or was it just me?
Chief Oshkosh
@JoyceH:
It worked because Kerry didn’t shred them over it. He barely pushed back, instead relying on the obviousness of the comparison (“who would have thought…” about sums it up). He had absolutely zero passion. Awful retail politician. Worse, it was later determined that he and Gephardt (or, at least, people in their campaigns) worked together to deep six Dean, who actually did have fire in his belly.
The GOP ran a fake fighter pilot in a codpiece. They basically ran a photo-op Marlboro Man. The Democrats ran…John Kerry.
Elizabelle
That is one fine looking fox. I had always heard that coyotes and foxes do not inhabit the same ecospace, but that turns out not to be true in northern Virginia, at least.
I prefer the foxes.
prostratedragon
Appropriate that Chicago PBS is running a doc on the 1919 Black Sox scandal, the only way not involving loss of life to convince fans that thins could be worse.
NotMax
@Elizabelle
Got extra time on your hands?
Fox dog in 50 years.
japa21
@Citizen Alan: I didn’t until you brought it up. Now I can’t get it out of my mind. Thanks a lot.
Mousebumples
@Omnes Omnibus: yeah, it was hot today. Anything notable to report?
Jackie
@Starfish: I have more faith in Vance coming off as a smirking asshole, who IF quizzed about Springfield Haitians, also shows the country how hateful he is.
Walz will show compassion, likability and leadership. And honesty. Vance can’t do the same – he has none of these traits.
columbusqueen
@Elizabelle: In fact, fox vixens are raising their kits in dens close to homes, to protect the little ones from coyotes.
Starfish
@Jackie: Oh no, Huffpo is saying that CBS expects the candidates to fact check each other. This will be a mess.
Today, we passed the Trumpers who come to town on the weekends to stand by the Target and support their dude. They had a sign about cats. My husband rolled down the window and meowed at them.
Geminid
@Elizabelle: The coyotes will wipe the foxes out if they can. Wolves would wipe out the coyotes, which is why coyotes didn’t use to live east of the Mississippi River or in the states adjoining the Mississippi to the west.
Coyotes came east after the wolves were hunted out. Now they’re all over Virginia, but I’ve only seen a live one twice.
TBone
@columbusqueen: a friend in a popular, beach town-adjacent suburb in Delaware had just such a guest family recently.
Elizabelle
@NotMax: And a scientific link, no less.
If they bred bulldogs with foxes, at least those smushface pups might get an easier chance to breathe. What a fine nose you have there, Mr. Fox.
TBone
@Citizen Alan: that was an entertaining show in its day, although I was too young to get all the innuendo back then. Between Match and Hollywood Squares, I learned some stuff 😂 Oh and who could forget the Newlywed Game?
Gravenstone
@West of the Rockies: Just “X” out the pop up like any other window.
Elizabelle
@Geminid
@columbusqueen: I am Team Fox. Protect those kits! Smart of them to live closer to humans. A solo fox startled me a few years ago by emerging from under the backyard deck. After I’d been there for some time, sipping morning coffee.
Coyotes. Some seem like noble animals, but dangerous around pets. Glad they will not have the trajectory of Burmese pythons and snakehead fish. 😳
TBone
@Elizabelle: UGH snakehead fish 😳
https://www.fws.gov/story/snakehead-dilemma
Gloria DryGarden
@Scout211: regarding “witchcraft” and “cult spirit”
Those people offend me, they don’t know they’re insulting a religious group, who have moral and ethical standards. Usually any intentions, before they are sent out, are couched in “for the highest good of all, and harming none.” Anything different than that is undertaken only w serious thought and advisement; it seems morally forbidden.
Also: These “Christians” seem to know a whole lot, in practice, about creating (and being loyal to) a cult. And a lot about weaving hypnotic spells with their mixed up weird alternative factoids and selected misinterpretations from their big book. To control a lot of people, masses. To cause harm, for attention and to divide people, and to deepen our sense of hopelessness and chaos. If they want to discuss negative “witchcraft”, they are a living example. Seducing people with fear, and false news, to control an outcome.
Kamala is creating her “magic” by being factual, genuine, normal, inclusive and warm. It’s not magic at all. She’s clearly adept at communicating and dodging bullshit, while staying on her purpose.
I don’t think she’s doing anything to control, or use mental entrainment, or exhaust people via bombardment w crazy mixes of misconstrued wordages.
I don’t like them using this offensive insult for her, and I don’t like them implying there are forces of darkness involved. Perhaps from them, their every accusation being projection, for sure that’s plausible. This insult is just too deep, too undermining, and attacks people’s sense of the sacred. By implying she’s gone beyond the pale, they are doing so.
Kamala is great. I love how she stays above all that.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: the coyotes and wolves seem to be coexisting fine in Yellowstone national park. I’ve seen a coyote there.
(The wolves are much harder to get to see, 5 am, and in just the right valleys, and you probably need a telephoto lens.)
I think I heard that here, too; the wildlife refuge folks said they didn’t have foxes anymore, because the coyotes took over.
Jeffro
@TBone: I think that was Eddie Murphy? LOL
TerryC
@VeniceRiley: Raccoon poop, too.
Geminid
@Gloria DryGarden: The Yellowstone wolves may not have thrived enough yet to push the coyotes out. But maybe the two species will coexist in this setting; an interesting experiment.
Armadillos sure are on the move. OzarkHillbilly said they’ve made it up to Missouri. Now I wonder if the road runners will follow the coyotes east just to mess with their heads.
Have you ever been to Bitter Lakes National Wildlife Refuge? It’s just outside Roswell, New Mexico. That’s a good place to see birds including migratory species. Alamosa County in Colorado has several wildlife refuges including a big one adjacent to Great Sand Dunes National Park. That’s on a major migration route and the Town of Alamosa has a Crane Festival every April.
Alamosa’s a nice town, with a sizeable park along the Rio Grand that has flat walking and plenty of birds. I could see living there as long as I had someplace warmer to go in the winter.The San Luis Valley can be a cold and windy place.
Gloria DryGarden
@Geminid: I would LOVE to see the cranes. I’ve been to sand dunes, but not to these wildlife refuges.
there’s a pair of cranes in Yellowstone, on a lake in the nw area, very sweet. But I hear about the sand hill cranes.
a friend moved to Alamosa for awhile. It went strangely, and she moved back. Not sure why.
Republican area.
columbusqueen
@Gloria DryGarden: I believe there is some genetic evidence that coyotes crossbred with wolves on their journey east, which is why eastern coyotes are taller & heavier than their scrawnier western cousins.
Elizabelle
@TBone: Thank you. Interesting article.
Not mentioned but in passing: snakehead are allegedly truly delicious. Steamed with ginger; however chefs want to prepare. Although, will have to come up with a more palatable name for them on menus.
Bill Arnold
@columbusqueen:
Yeah, they can be scary big.
They’re smart, too, and very aware. They do tend to be cautious.
I scent-mark my property in the traditional predator way when they’re around. (At night so the neighbors don’t see.)
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@columbusqueen:
On the east coast, the crossbreed between coyotes and wolves are called red wolves. This caused a bit of an uproar among NCSU fans.
Ramalama
@Starfish: why are the Trump supporters targeting Target?
Also the thought of a grown man yell/ meowing in scorn is pretty funny.