Archive for the ‘Mammals’ Category

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 247

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2020

I’m going to be a little self-indulgent today.

I know I’ve said in the past that I don’t want to post a lot of “Forgotten Weapons” stuff, because I figure if folks are interested, they already subscribe. I’m making an exception here because:

a) This is a pretty recent entry.
II) Smith and Wesson.
3) Australia, Australia, we love you, amen.

Specifically, a Smith and Wesson pistol-carbine made for the South Australian Police.

Bonus #1: I actually thought about posting this yesterday, but couldn’t find it in my recommendations. It popped up again today, and this is some real history: “Hannibal’s Elephant Army – The New Evidence”.

Bonus #2: For some reason, I’ve been getting a lot of car repair videos in my feed. Especially ones from “Precision Transmission”. I thought I’d post this one because I shared it with some other folks privately and it seems like they enjoyed it.

“Nitrous doesn’t play well with others! Especially when you have pretty much stock unit.”

Posted in Cars, Guns, History, Mammals | Comments Closed

Badger Badger Badger Bad…

Monday, November 30th, 2020

…never mind.

(Nikola’s earlier shenanigans.)

(Mushroom mushroom.)

Posted in Cars, Mammals | Comments Closed

Obit watch: September 21, 2020.

Monday, September 21st, 2020

There were some obits that got kind of buried in the shuffle of events over the weekend. Here’s a round-up:

Winston Groom, noted author. He is perhaps most famous for Forrest Gump, but he did a lot of other work:

“‘Forrest Gump’ is not the only reason to celebrate him as a great writer,” P.J. O’Rourke, the political satirist and journalist who knew Mr. Groom for decades, wrote in an email.
In Mr. O’Rourke’s view, Mr. Groom’s debut novel, “Better Times Than These” (1978), “was the best novel written about the Vietnam War.”
“And this is not even to mention Winston’s extraordinary historical and nonfiction works,” he added.
Those books include the Pulitzer Prize finalist (for general nonfiction), “Conversations With the Enemy” (1983), an account of a Vietnam-era prisoner of war written with Duncan Spencer; “Shrouds of Glory” (1995), about the Civil War; and “Patriotic Fire” (2006), about the Battle of New Orleans.
At his death, Mr. Groom was awaiting the publication of “The Patriots,” a combined biography of Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams; it is to be published in November by National Geographic.

I have not seen, and have no interest in seeing, “Forrest Gump”. However, I recall reading some years back that the book is much more vicious and satirical than the movie, and that Mr. Groom somewhat resented how the movie watered down his work. I might have to seek out some of his non-fiction, especially if P.J. O’Rourke endorses it.

Anne Stevenson, poet. She was also famous, perhaps more so, as the author of a biography of Sylvia Plath.

Ms. Plath committed suicide in 1963 at the age of 30, and many of her admirers blamed her husband, Mr. Hughes, who was having an affair with a woman named Assia Wevill (who herself would commit suicide in 1969). But Ms. Stevenson’s book painted a different picture, portraying Ms. Plath as “a wall of unrelenting rage” prone to outrageous behavior, while depicting Mr. Hughes as generous and caring.
The book was written with the cooperation of Ms. Plath’s literary estate, which was controlled by Mr. Hughes and his sister, Olwyn Hughes. Ms. Stevenson wrote in the preface that she “received a great deal of help from Olwyn Hughes,” so much so that “Ms. Hughes’s contributions to the text have made it almost a work of dual authorship.”
That did not give “Bitter Fame” much credibility in some critics’ eyes. The poet Robert Pinsky, reviewing it in The New York Times, called out a bias in the presentation.
“Since Ms. Stevenson’s book is, as it had to be, largely about a marriage, the tilting of viewpoint toward one side is a difficult problem for the biographer,” he wrote. “Marriages are complex and mysterious stories, each with a minimum of two sides. Writing about a marriage demands tact, respect for the unknowable and more acknowledgment of a limited viewpoint than I think Ms. Stevenson provides.”
In the British newspaper The Independent, Ronald Hayman was even harsher, calling “Bitter Fame” a “vindictive book” that sought not only to blame Ms. Plath for the failed marriage but also “to undermine her poetic achievement by representing her verse as negative, sick, death-oriented, and comparing it unfavorably with his.”

Great and good FotB RoadRich sent over an obit for Long Cat (aka Nobiko) the subject of Internet memes.

Posted in Books, Mammals, Movies, Obits | 1 Comment »

“What you gonna do when you get out of jail?…” part 168

Monday, September 14th, 2020

Today: the majestic moose!

From the Simple Living Alaska channel, “Butchering a Moose”.

278 pounds of moose meat!

Okay, that was a little long, so here’s a coffee break sized one for you. I’ve written before about the legendary Broadway flop “Moose Murders”. (Which, of course, I never saw, because I was just under 18 at the time, didn’t live in New York City, and it opened and closed on the same night.)

So this wonderful eccentric decided, as the final for a class he was taking, to direct the opening scene of “Moose Murders”. And now it is up on the ‘Tube.

Bonus bonus, also short: “B-roll” from the Beautiful Soup Theater Collective revival.

Posted in Food, Mammals, Theatre | Comments Closed

Merry farking Christmas, y’all.

Saturday, December 14th, 2019

I was cautiously optimistic, tending almost towards excitement, about Christmas this year. I’m mostly getting along with almost everyone, and Daddy didn’t spend the Christmas money on brakes this year. (As a matter of fact, Daddy got his car inspected without any issues, got the oil and filters changed, got a minor repair done, and Daddy’s new vehicle registration is in the mail and should get here before Christmas.)

You know what depresses me at this time of year, though? (“Almost everything!” cries the peanut gallery.) They’re not too far off. But one thing that gets under my skin is car wrecks.

We live in a part of town where car wrecks are a distressingly common sight. The roads are heavily trafficked and carrying more than designed capacity. But car wrecks at Christmas really get me down.

I see someone with the whole front end of their car smashed to heck: obviously, this is a total loss. The ambulance is standing around nearby, and even if it doesn’t look like anyone was badly hurt, I’m thinking to myself what a shame it is. The kids were looking forward to that Playstation 5 (sorry, Playstation V) or the XBox 720 (“now with tint control!”) or the new Banana PCJR Pro, Mom goes out to the grocery store, and both parents come home hours later. “Sorry, kids. No Christmas this year. The car’s totaled and we’ve got to get a new one.”

I know I’m probably stretching a little: out here, I think everyone has comprehensive on their cars, and they’re probably not out more than the deductible (and the gap, if they don’t have gap insurance). But it still bothers me.

The other problem out here, oddly enough, is deer. The hooved rodents are belligerent and numerous, there’s strong opposition to doing anything about them (“They’re so cute! How dare you trap them!”), and people frequently have unpleasant encounters with them, even on heavily trafficked roads like RM 620 or SH 71. Our next door neighbor hit one a few weeks ago: it didn’t do a lot of damage from what I could tell, but her car was in the shop for a bit.

Last night, it was my turn. We were driving back from dinner down a two-lane road that’s a shortcut between US 290 towards Dripping and SH 71 towards Lakeway/Bee Cave when one bounded across the road in front of us. I saw it out of the corner of my eye as it was crossing the road towards the driver’s side but didn’t even have time to react: we clipped it pretty solidly on the passenger side.

The good news is, the car’s driveable: there’s some loose plastic around the passenger side wheel, and a fairly large dent in what I’d call the under-bumper. But there’s no hood damage, the headlights still work, and I think the front running light on that side does as well. There’s no evidence that the engine compartment took a hit, and I don’t see any fluids leaking. And the airbags didn’t go off.

I know it could have been a lot worse: we could have hit it square on and done more damage, it could have ended up going through the windshield into the passenger compartment…as I said, the car’s driveable, we have coverage, and Mom’s calling the insurance company Monday morning. We may even have dashcam footage if I can find it.

I guess what I’m trying to say this holiday season is: be careful. Look both ways. Turn with a light when you can, even if it takes you a little out of your way. Don’t pull a U-turn in the middle of the highway.

And if you’re in an area where it is hunting season and you have a license, take as many deer as you legally can.

Posted in Cars, Christmas, Mammals | 1 Comment »

Pop quiz, hotshot.

Monday, July 22nd, 2019

Is this headline from The Babylon Bee or the New York Times?

How ‘The Lion King’ Gets Real-Life Lion Family Dynamics Wrong

Answer after the jump. No fair playing if you already know the answer…

(more…)

Posted in Mammals, Media, Movies, Sarcasm | Comments Closed

Photo of the day.

Wednesday, May 22nd, 2019

Technically, this is a couple of days old, and I’m not going to reproduce it here, out of respect for the NYT‘s intellectual property rights.

But if you ever wanted to see a large photo of Thomas Harris (yes, the Hannibal guy) holding a live possum named Bruce…here you go.

Posted in Books, Mammals, Photography | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 17, 2019.

Friday, May 17th, 2019

I.M. Pei. He was 102, and it sounds like he led a full rich life right up to the very end.

In retirement, Mr. Pei remained eager for news of both architecture and art and, until his last year, continued to make the occasional trip downtown to lunch with friends and consume his share of red Bordeaux.

Grumpy Cat.

Posted in Art, Mammals, Museums, Obits | Comments Closed

Obit watch: May 10, 2019.

Friday, May 10th, 2019

Jim Fowler, Marlin Perkins’s sidekick on “Wild Kingdom” and later frequent late-night talk show guest.

Here’s something we hope you really like:

Posted in 1970s, Mammals, Obits, Reptiles, TV | 1 Comment »

Bang! goes another kanga on the bonnet of the van…

Friday, April 26th, 2019

I live fairly near Wimberly, TX. The surrounding area is pretty nice: there’s a fair amount of undeveloped land, and a few ranches.

One of the local ranchers specializes in “exotic animals”. He brought a kangaroo down to his ranch: “This was something of a trial run by him for kangaroos.”

The trial run is not working out so well: the kangaroo has busted out and is on the run.

Helm said he and others have been going out every couple of hours to take a gander at the kangaroo as it bounds across the rural locale, munching on grass and flowers. He said the area is the perfect habitat for the animal, which is native to Australia.
“He’s not hurting anybody,” Helm said. “He’s healthy, and he’s eating good.”

The authorities would prefer that you not try to pet, capture, feed, or otherwise approach the roo:

Helm said the animal really doesn’t like humans, and won’t let anybody get closer than about 80 feet before taking off.
“You better wear a cape and an ‘S’ on your chest if you want to catch this thing,” Helm said. He said it will likely take someone with a tranquilizer dart and dogs to be able to capture the animal. Even after being sedated, Helm said the kangaroo could probably cover a couple of miles in a matter of minutes. “I’m afraid if anyone even got close enough to put a rope on it, they’re going to end up in the emergency room real fast.”

I seem to remember having kangaroo meat once, at a restaurant on the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Oddly, I don’t remember the name of the place, and it’s probably gone by now anyway.

After the jump, subject line hattip and musical interlude.

(more…)

Posted in Mammals | 1 Comment »

Headline of the day.

Wednesday, February 6th, 2019

Autopsy: Man died of meth overdose before being eaten by bear at national park

Drugs are bad, kids. Mm’kay?

(Obligatory.)

Posted in Bagatelle, Food, Mammals | Comments Closed

Some days you get the bull…

Friday, June 15th, 2018

I’m not a huge fan of bull riding (though I do think it is much more interesting than soccer), and I don’t care much for “People” magazine.

But, as an amateur medical geek, when I see a phrase like “first person to survive the procedure at the hospital this century”, it kind of makes me take notice.

Wyatt Bruesch was competing in an Idaho rodeo when the bull he was riding bucked him off and trampled him fatally.

After he was airlifted to the Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, he flatlined three times in the emergency room.

The emergency department decided on a hail mary pass: an “emergency department thoracotomy.”

“You don’t perform it until the patient is literally at death’s doorstep and about to die,” Drew McRoberts, Portneuf Medical Center‘s trauma director, told People. “The odds of surviving an ED thoracotomy are extremely low, which is why they’re rarely done.”

Here’s the Trauma.org page on the subject (it’s also linked in the article itself).

Emergency department thoracotomy is a life-saving procedure in a select group of patients. Exactly who these patients are is a matter of some controversy in the trauma literature. There is a significant amount of published data on the indications for and outcomes of resuscitative thoracotomy. However the results of interventions varies widely, as does each unit’s experience, puclished data ranging for 11 patients in 10 years to 950 patients in 23 years…
Overall survival of patients undergoing emergency thoracotomy is between 4 and 33% depending on the protocols used in individual departments. The main determinants for survivability of an emergency thoracotomy are the mechanism of injury (stab, gunshot or blunt), location of injury and the presence or absence of vital signs.

Anyway:

Acting quickly, trauma surgeon Jorge Amorim cut Wyatt’s chest open and massaged his heart by hand to get it beating again.
“He basically saved his life,” McRoberts said. “He also did something else. Dr. Amorim reached into the chest cavity and squeezed and held the hilum of the lung where the great vessels come into the lung. He continued to squeeze for 15 minutes, which stopped the bleeding as Wyatt was rushed to an operating room.”

Mr. Bruesch is at home, recovering. In addition to the injuries that required an emergency thoracotomy, he also broke three ribs and eight vertebrae. In spite of this, he says he’s going to continue bull riding.

Meanwhile, in Pocatello, there’s a trauma surgeon shopping for a wheelbarrow to carry his giant brass testicles.

Posted in Geek, Mammals | Comments Closed

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »