Thursday, October 13. 2005
 How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?
One of those eternally fascinating questions. Heberle reviews "Will in the World", which, by coincidence, happens to be on my bedside mountain of things I am reading right now: "A young man from a small provincial town—a man without independent wealth, without powerful family connections, and without a university education—moves to London in the late 1580s and, in a remarkably short time, becomes the greatest playwright not of his age alone but of all time…. How is an achievement of this magnitude to be explained? How did Shakespeare become Shakespeare?"
Read entire extremely interesting review, and you will want to read the book.
 Robo-Duck
Duck hunters love robo-ducks, and even the most traditional are becoming converts. Robo-ducks draw ducks to your decoy spread, presumably by imitating the appearance of a landing duck. Are they sporting? That's a fair question. Do they work? Definitely. Lucky Duck is said to be the best. They also make a wind-powered version.
What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me; no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so. From Hamlet (II, ii, 115-117)
Wednesday, October 12. 2005
 The Snow Goose, seemingly endangered in the 1970s, has now become a threat to itself, due to a population boom which threatens its arctic breeding habitat and might be caused by the abundant food which farmers leave on their fields after harvest, along the Mississippi and Central flyways.
In recent years, I have seen their flocks block out the sun in Canada. It's referred to as a "tornado" when they descend upon your decoys in a field in enormous numbers. There are no large numbers in the Northeast, but they do gather in the Chesapeake and I have seen them flying over ski slopes in Vermont in the winter, and loafing on potato fields on Long Island. This goose comes in a "blue" form, and various mixed-color versions, including the "eagle-head' - blue with white head. The blue version was once called a Blue Goose, but is now known to be just a color variant. The Canadian and US govts are doing all they can to encourage hunting Snow Geese, including a spring season and permitting electronic calls. They are fun to hunt, if they chose your field, and if you hit them they "go down like a prom dress," as the expression has it: easy to kill, compared to other geese. The deeply frustrating situation is when they chose a field adjacent to yours, and you end up standing there like a dope in your dorky camo hat with earflaps and an unused pile of ammo while hundreds or thousands of them land out of range. Daily limits of Snows are high in most areas. They are not exactly delicious like a Canada Goose, but there are ways to make them an enjoyable meal, and the rule is that if you kill it, you eat it. More about Snow Goose at CLO here.
The Baltimore Sun ran this photo of 
the first airlift of dogs from New Orleans, on a flight chartered by T. Boone Pickens.
Thanksgiving Planning A tradition in the south - the Turducken. Aren't you bored with turkey? And they will do a shrimp and crawfish stuffing for you.
Wetlands Litigation From Yahoo News: WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court said on Tuesday that it would decide the reach of the federal government's power to regulate wetlands, an issue pitting environmentalists against property-rights advocates. The justices agreed to decide a pair of Michigan cases, involving a shopping-center developer and a condominium builder, that will test whether the government's use of the 1972 Clean Water Act represented a permissible exercise of Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce. The high court will consider whether federal regulators have gone too far by restricting development of wetlands that are not adjacent to navigable waters such as rivers or lakes. Read entire piece.
I hate cases like this in which strong ideas which I hold dear find themselves at war. Property rights? All for them - the foundation of economic freedom. Protection of the land? All for it. Trust states and localities to do the latter? Forget it. But is that right and principled? Maybe not. Are local, state and the federal govt corrupted by money? Yes - but it's not campaign contributions - it's tax money that corrupts them. They get to spend your hard-earned $ to buy re-election. Which is why a town govt will usually prefer a Walmart to a marsh.
Science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind. Albert Einstein
Tuesday, October 11. 2005
Katrina's effects on LA wetlands An informal report from SW Louisiana, by Ducks Unlimited biologists:
Clay and I spent all day Tuesday in the Pecan Island area getting footage to show effects of the storm (Rita) related to the people in this devastating event and what they are trying to deal with.
Pictures and video can only show part of the devastation that we saw...homes washed away, dead animals and fish, decaying vegetation, mud, etc., etc. Miles and miles....
On Tuesday, most of our time was spent in Vermillion Parish. Hwy 82 runs along a Chenier ridge and through some great duck country. The water along Hwy 82, north and south is still high. Much of the vegetation is dead or dying. Effects of high water for this extended period will have significant effect on this marsh (hundreds of square miles). I am sure some areas will benefit and some will suffer and some areas will recover faster than others. Very difficult to tell at this time on specific areas. Water quality in much of this area is bad to worse. Not sure what effect water quality will have on recovery...if any???
On Wednesday, Clay and I spent the day near Gueydan. Clay took video of about 30 Mottled ducks at the NRCS WRP prairie restoration site.
Just west of Gueydan, we found several thousand Bluewinged Teal and a few Pintail in a fallow/idle field. Every duck we saw in two days was in flooded idle fields. Lots of water in the rice country...lots of unharvested second crop...Ag. dept. predict 95% of the ratoon crop was lost. Clay got some video of teal, mottled ducks, shorebirds, etc.
Read the rest on continuation page below:
Continue reading ""
Cold Weather The human body was not made for cold and wet. Winter fishing and duck hunting are dangerous hobbies. A scary piece on the subject of Off-Season Boating. Now for a tip on gloves: A fellow hunter was using Maine lobsterman insulated PVC gloves for his decoy work, and they seem like a good idea for any cold wet work. They sell them at New England Marine. Also here. The neoprene uninsulated gloves sold in outfitter catalogues are useless and extremely cold. I am throwing mine away.
 Yankee retrieving a large Canada Goose last week in a Manitoba wheat field.
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice; in practice, there is. Chuck Reid
Monday, October 10. 2005
Al Quaida moving into Gaza. Powerline Why to support Miers. Mirengoff. Rick Moran on the risks of the Miers appointment. Why a Federal appointment is more than a hassle: WSJ Wallace and Gromit history is on fire. Guardian FEMA contracting was a mess. Who picks up the bodies? WaPo Europe bans Turkish birds. Guardian
 Xenophon's Anabasis, and the March of the Ten Thousand
VDH has a nice piece on Xenophon's report of the adventures and misadventures of the Greek mercenaries who were hired by Cyrus in 401 BC to remove his brother, Artaxerxes, from power in Persia. Also, because of our appreciation of VDH, a free ad for his new book on the Peloponnesian War, which shortly preceded the Persian adventure of the tough, battle-hardened Greek hoplites.
 Cooking a Wild Duck
Or any duck, even from the supermarket... here are the two basic approaches for the breast or for the entire bird: 1. Cut off the breasts carefully, retaining all of the meat and keeping the skin on. Marinate in wine and various herbs for a few hours. Or in milk. 2. Then take the carcass, boil in water with plenty of good wine and/or port and herbs, onions, carrots, celery and garlic, a little sugar, etc. for a few hours, until thick. Simmer the heck out of it for a good sauce. Then strain it and cook until thick on the stove. 3. Saute the breasts, seasoned with salt and pepper, in olive oil and butter on high heat very briefly, a couple of minutes to rare, both sides. DO NOT OVERCOOK. 4. Take the reduction from #2 above, and pour over breasts sliced on the bias. OR: 1. Take the entire bird, season with salt and pepper and put in oven on a rack, put a sliced onion and a sliced apple inside, and cover with a couple of strips of bacon. Wild birds are short on fat, but store-bought duck is full of fat. Bake at 550 for 25 minutes - rare. Duck needs to be rare for the full wild, livery flavor to be fully appreciated. 2. Slice the breast, cut off the legs and serve them too, and pour a thickened reduction of wine/port/herbs (see above) over the slices. (Hopefully you have a spare duck carcass to put into that reduction). ------ You can garnish both of the above with orange slices, but do not cook an orange near a good duck. Too strong. Serve either approach with wild rice and sauteed root veggies - carrots, parsnips, celery root, etc. A few sauteed figs are nice, or sauteed pears. Whatever you do, save or use the reduction from the duck carcass - it is a base for a fine sauce for anything, like chicken. It can be frozen if you don't use it all. The diving ducks (red-heads, canvasbacks, blue-bills, etc.) are, in my opinion, the most delicious with their liver/anchovy flavor, but some prefer the mallards and other puddle-ducks with their milder flavor. Chacun a son gout. But try to appreciate the wild ones - they concentrate the call of the wild in their flesh. Yes, you can serve with cranberry sauce - anything with feathers is enhanced by cranberries.
Sunday, October 9. 2005
We are proud to say that we are among the rare and blessed few who have encountered the mythical duck hunter's cutie-pie while hunting last week in Manitoba - the famed and mysterious Maid of the Marsh, who, like a mermaid, or a unicorn, or a white whale, or Bigfoot, materializes like a vision out of the mist and rain and sleet, to present her magnificent self to distract and bother fortunate and intrepid fellows who are on a heroic quest - in this case, the quest for a limit of diver ducks on Manitoba big water. Yes, we were very lucky to get a photo of this charming creature as scientific proof of her existence, as she gave us her memorable trademark open-mouthed, invitingly seductive glance before she disappeared or dissolved into the fog and the bullrushes and the alcohol - a momentary vision who came to us in black and white. An illusion? A ghost? The fantasy of a lonely hunter far from home? Well, the photo tells it all. If you wonder about the make and model of the shotgun, your priorities are way off. No - we are not a porn site. Sorry to disappoint. This is science. We think the gun is a Win 42, a .410 and definitely no duck gun in anyone's hands, but a fine gun for shooting pigeons and starlings around the barn. And that is not cellulite - that is abundant health.
Friday, October 7. 2005
Posted on July 27 by Dylanologist Immigration Update This site has a useful overview of three of the so-called "immigration reform" bills currently floating around Capitol Hill. Two of them, as can be seen through taking even the briefest glance at their provisions, are little more than blanket amnesties that contain clauses which would also vastly increase our rate of legal immigration, already the highest in the world by a wide margin. The Sheila Jackson Lee-sponsored bill is beneath contempt- Vincente Fox himself, if given the chance to write such a bill, would not have been so bold: "Eliminates minor crimes as a basis for deportation"? So just what exactly would an illegal immigrant have to do under this bill to get himself deported? "Eliminates authority of state and local agencies to carry out immigration functions and allows them to prohibit local enforcement of immigration law." There's really no need to go on any further here, folks. As for the second bill, the warning signs should already be seen just by glancing at the names of the co-sponsors: Ted Kennedy, the author of the infamous 1965 law which inaugurated our current era of mass, uncontrolled immigration, and John McCain, who has lately come out in support of the rights of illegal aliens rather than his own Arizona constituents. Instead of simply giving away permanent residency to illegals, the bill would fine them $2,000 to obtain it, essentially putting American citizenship up for sale. Sickening as that prospect is, the bill contains another provision that would arguably have an even greater long term impact: the removal of immigrants admitted under "family reunification" from the current immigration cap. Now, the issue of family reunification and its effect on immigration patterns is best left for another post, but it suffices to say that approximately two-thirds of all approximately 1,000,000 legal immigrants admitted each year are brought in simply because they already have relatives within the country (rather than, say, for their labor skills, educational attainment, etc.). If such people were no longer counted towards the cap, the result would plainly be a massive increase in legal immigration- perhaps as much as a doubling of the yearly rate, if not much more. This provision represents a highly disingenuous attempt to effect a dramatic change in immigration levels without even having to state such explicitly. Of course, a similar level of deception was employed in the 1965 Kennedy bill, which the Senator promised "will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society." Which, in time, it precisely did. The third bill, sponsored by senators John Cornyn and Jon Kyl, from Texas and Arizona respectively, is the only one that even attempts to show any respect for the rule of law or the popular will of an overwhelming majority of Americans. While ostensibly cracking down on illegal immigration by requiring that illegals leave the country within five years, the bill leaves the door open with a proposed "guest-worker" program that would create as many new problems as it would solve (not to mention the logistical challenges in enforcing the tangle of security provisions and requirements). The employer sanctions it calls for are exactly what is needed, but the government has shown itself to be extraordinarily reluctant to enforce such sanctions in the past, even when required by law. The bill also authorizes state and local officials to enforce federal immigration law- a crucial step, for sure, but as long as the nation's major cities continue to throw the welcome mat out to illegals this can only be a partial solution. Meanwhile, Bush has been consorting with his allies in big business and agriculture in order to force an amnesty of one sort or another by the end of the year, the LA Times recently reported. Why Bush is so obsessed with an issue that occupied perhaps no more than 10 minutes of his public time and a single question in a third debate during the campaign is difficult to discern, but it is clear that things are at last coming to a head. I can't offer any predictions of the outcome just yet, but thank God ordinary Americans have an advocate like Tom Tancredo to rely on in the fight.
Posted on April 7, 2005 Maple Sugar The LYF has been busy sugarin', so it's time for some info. We tend to think of Vermont maple syrup, but Canada is the major producer. We consume it abundantly in New England and do not approve of the cheap substitute goop in the supermarkets. Grading - lots of us like Grade B, but you won't find it in $ - We pay retail in the $20s/gallon, but the farmers get between $2-$3/gallon, usually. More in a "bad" year. Other uses: Put it on oatmeal like the Pilgrims did. Put it on pumpkin pie - great. Pour some into winter squash halves and bake, like my Indian ancestors probably did.
It is well that war is so terrible -- lest we should grow too fond of it. Robert E. Lee
Thursday, October 6. 2005
Posted March 9, 2004 by Bird Dog
Politics and The Annual Hawk Count Each fall, intrepid, eccentric birders head out to the ridgelines and shores to count migrating hawks along the nation's flyways. Hawks, eagles, and ospreys inhabit the top of their food chains, so hawk populations are an indirect measure of environmental health, plus plenty of folks just dig hawks and eagles for their size and grandeur. A wise pal (MM - thanks) warned me in the Fall, during an Audubon hawk-count, that if the Dems end up without either the House, the Senate, or the White House, they would go berserk and get wierd and dangerous. Man, was he correct. In just a few weeks, we see Teresa Heinz, Bill Moyers, Jimmy Carter, Screamin' Dean, Harry Reid, Robert "Sheets" Byrd, George "Bong-Man" Soros, Teddy "Hic" Kennedy, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Dan Rather, Barbara "Fang" Boxer, and God knows how many other members of the Liberal Establishment, go bonkers. In public. Plus even the Big Media - the only "Big" anything they don't bitch about - is in trouble. Even if they still have their easy day job, powerlessness makes some folks nuts, especially when they are accustomed to having it. The only one not going nuts is the Man With The Plan - Hillary the Re-Born Conservative. And it's not just the election - it's the fact that Bush is doing well. How can an assumedly idiot (Andover, Yale, Harvard) Republican succeed in anything? When I heard that Kennedy had suddenly removed his famous negative speech (from just before the Iraq election) from his website, I knew these guys were in deep trouble. All they can hope for is a recession, a major reversal in the ME, or really anything bad. The Great Rushbo has been saying for years that if ANYTHING goes right, it hurts the Libs. For years, he has been pointing out how the press can find the one negative statistic out of 100 good ones, but I figured that was his typical hyperbole. It isn't. I believe they hope for trouble, because trouble will help them, and invent crises if they can't find them. Forget the Country, forget Freedom. Dr. Joy Bliss, our Blog Shrink (every blog needs one), always says that power is far more corrupting than money. Power is psychologically intoxicating to weak people - it's a drug - as mind-distorting as heroin or TV. Money just sits there quietly, and it's never enough anyway. (Well, power is what democracy is about. It's the brass ring, along with job security and a pension anyone would envy. I guess we have to be glad that some people are willing to do it. But it's not like the good old days (?) when regular folks would run for elections as a brief public service, an interruption of their normal life. It's become a career, so you get careerists. Will not term them professionals.) Anyway, we are seeing people - a political party - in acute withdrawal. A Detox Ward. People in DTs. But instead of seeing the traditional pink elephants, all they are seeing are Republican elephants. Well, it's been a long hard climb for sanity to enter Washington, DC. We "normal" folks had the power to get it, but do we have the power to keep it?
In the psychological-medical fields, we find IQ to be a useful measure, along with many others. IQ has only very broad predictive power for adjustment to life or for achievement in life, but a person's reasoning ability, curiosity, analytic talents, and their sensitivity of pattern-recognition, all say something important about a person and the tools they have to deal with life, should they chose to use them. But a very high IQ doesn't equate with "success", whatever that is, though it certainly correlates with the richness of the life one is able to live; a lower IQ, on the other hand, cannot interfere with happiness or with achievement in less intellectually rigorous areas of life. In the variety of folks we encounter in medicine, it is common to see folks of high IQ doing relatively menial jobs, but who must find outlets for their abilities in all sorts of surprising interests, intellectual hobbies and obsessions. I recall one truck driver whose hobby of Latin translation was almost obsessive, and wonderful. And a refrigerator repair guy who could have taught the Cornell Lab of Ornithology a thing or two...not everyone spends their spare time stupified, watching sports on TV or the other crap. And neither is it rare to find folks of very limited talents and potential, but of slippery, conniving character, shoving themselves forward in the world, beyond what substance they really bring to the table - especially in sales, finance, and politics - the realms of BS, the schmooze, and the con job, and, in some cases, genuine integrity. IQ shows a bell-curve distribution across a given population, with the peak around 100. Along with social class and background and emotional maturity, IQ tends to be an important part of social affinities and friendships - people of similar IQs are "on the same page." There seem to be optimal IQ ranges for different areas of life. CEOs of Fortune 500 companies tend to be in the 120-130 range - very smart but not so smart that they get tangled up. Attorneys today, unlike the past, inhabit a wide range, from 90 to the max. - there are lots of law schools looking for paying customers. As people enter the high end, over 140, they often seem a bit eccentric or awkward, because they are experiencing the world a little differently and their range of interests can be wide and unusual. Quick IQ tests, and further comments, on continuation page below: The vast numbers of people are in the 90-110 range, which does not provide the horsepower for certain tasks but is fine for most things - it wouldn't have gotten you through college 40 years ago but it will today, somewhere, in the non-rigorous educational environment we live in (it won't carry you through medical school, but it could get you through a third-rate law or business school nowadays, but forget a doctorate in math, computer science, or the sciences). And yes, IQ is inherited, like height and like many personality traits. Go ahead, blame Mom or Dad. At this point in my career, I can judge someone's IQ within 6-10 points after a 5-minute conversation, just as any internist can name your weight without weighing you or your age without asking. The capacity to perceive layers of irony is one part of my assessment, as compared with concreteness of thought. The online IQ tests aren't bad - they probably correlate within +/- 6 points of the extensive tests. Can your vanity handle it? One here: Click here: Blogthings - A Quick and Dirty IQ Test and one here: Click here: Tickle: Tests, Matchmaking and Social Networking Don't cheat - it becomes invalid if you take time. Anyone can complete a Times crossword in a year. And you can't take the same IQ test twice - invalid. In the end, "Character is destiny," as Freud said, not meaning worldly success, but meaning that what shapes one's life is one's personality profile (which includes one's willingness to push the limits of our natural tendencies - it isn't a deterministic view). Indeed, personality traits have more to do with satisfaction in life than does IQ. On the other hand, IQ puts sharp limits on what we might be able to handle or appreciate, especially in the area of abstract thinking and the enjoyment of playing with ideas, the arts, words, and numbers.
It ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe,
It don't matter, anyhow
An' it ain't no use to sit and wonder why, babe,
If you don't know by now
When your rooster crows at the break of dawn
Look out your window and I'll be gone
You're the reason I'm travellin' on
Don't think twice, it's alright. It ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
That light I never knowed
An' it ain't no use in turnin' on your light, babe
I'm on the dark side of the road.
Still I wish there was somethin' you could do or say
To try and make me change my mind and stay
We never did too much talkin' anyway
So don't think twice, it's alright Excerpted from Don't Think Twice, It's Alright, Dylan, on The Freewheelin Bob Dylan
Wednesday, October 5. 2005
Posted July 11, 2005, by The Dylanologist
Album Review: Time out of Mind
By the time 1997 rolled around, Bob Dylan had gone seven full years without releasing any original material, and it  appeared as though he had permanently put aside the creation of new compositions in favor of year-round touring and performing. Though 1989’s Oh Mercy was hailed as a comeback, its 1990 follow-up, Under The Red Sky, was widely panned, and Dylan sunk further still with a disastrous tour in 1991. Less attentive observers might have written off Dylan completely by 1992, but those dedicated fans that continued to attend live performances may have noticed a startling turnaround in concert quality by 1993, as Dylan found a strong new voice that reflected both a wiser maturity and much-improved tonal command. After the release of two albums of blues and folk covers in 92 and 93, Dylan continued to hone his live performances to an even greater degree, giving hard-rocking shows in 1995 that continued to redefine and renew songs from throughout his vast catalogue. A breathtaking performance of Restless Farewell for Frank Sinatra’s 80th birthday celebration in the waning days of 1995 led some perceptive commentators to suspect that Dylan was only beginning to rediscover his powers. For most critics, however, the arrival of Time Out Of Mind in September 1997 came as a complete surprise. That the album was excellent, rivaling his best work from the past 20 years, was even more of a shock to the public, its high quality further magnified by the reputation of the author and the seemingly permanent break he had taken from songwriting. The album captured a Grammy award and landed Dylan on the cover of Time magazine, but the music itself was anything but typical pop-scene fare. In fact, Time Out Of Mind was perhaps the gloomiest, most pessimistic take on life and the human experience that Dylan had ever put together, backed by exquisite and immensely atmospheric arrangements courtesy of producer Daniel Lanois. The songs themselves are bleak and haunting, always returning to the tried and true blues themes of lost loves, feelings of loneliness and isolation from society, and the inevitability of death and loss. As he had been doing for decades, Dylan often appropriated classic blues phrases in their entirety, perhaps tweaking them here or there, but leaving the most memorable imagery intact. Lines like “Going to walk down that dirt road ‘til my eyes begin to bleed,” and “turn your lamp down low” are taken almost word for word from old blues standards, and their very familiarity, their innate, almost subconscious power, lends the songs a powerful foundation in a century-old musical tradition. It is worth noting that the songs derive as much power from the arrangements and Dylan’s impassioned vocal delivery as from the (relatively simple) lyrics themselves, unlike many previous efforts where lyrical brilliance outshone what were often slapdash studio recordings. Dylan himself admitted as much in 1998 interview, conceding that “many of my records are more or less blueprints for the songs,” while “this time, I wanted the real thing … they’re written in stone when they’re done right.”
Continue reading "Vacation: The Best of Maggie's - Time out of Mind"
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