Celeste's Breadbox

Neighborhood politics

From a NYT article on fundrace.org:

"I live in a community that's overwhelmingly Republican; all the moms have Bush-Cheney bumper stickers on their minivans. I'm literally one of two Democrats on my entire street. So even if it's a very small possibility, I think there could be repercussions in some neighborhoods - petty vandalism, a slashed tire or graffiti."
---

Have we really come to the point where we fear physical retribution from our neighbors based on our political beliefs? That's not the America I learned about in civics class. On one side of it I can see the inherent violation of privacy when political donations are made public. But at the same time if we fear what other people think of us (or do to us) because of our beliefs, that's just giving in to another form bigotry, which I see getting worse and worse all the time. If you give money to a campaign you should be proud of making your political statement (and it is a statement), for whatever side of the argument. If your neighbors have a problem with it, well, that's their problem. In the long run the only thing that really counts is each person's secret ballot. And like we saw in India last week, ballots do not necessarily follow the money.

Trip to the Coast

It was a lovely trip to the coast, staying in Yachats as usual. A little bit of rain, but never while we were out in the elements, so that was good. Not that I mind a bit of rain.

Highlights of the trip were:

Bear! Never would have thought it. A good-sized black bear, ambling through a pasture on its way from one bit of forest to another. We were driving, and just caught a glimpse, and it was in the woods by the time we got turned around, but it had to have been, nothing else walks like that. This was in the Mapleton area, Siuslaw National Forest.

Sweet Creek Falls trail. Aaron had been there last fall with his mother and raved about it, so I really wanted to go. It's the kind of trail that's perfect for taking visitors from out of town, especially if they don't quite understand why you live in a cool, damp place like western Oregon. The creek cuts through a deep basalt gorge, and in some places the trail is a boardwalk bolted into the cliff. There are cascades all the way up the creek, and the actual falls aren't even the most dramatic on the trail. The big highlights on this trail were a family of winter wrens taking their fledglings out for a foray across the creek. The little guys were pretty hesitant, but they eventually all made it and peeped around just under the trail from where we were. They were totally ten pounds of cute in a five pound bag. We also saw a ouzel hunting in the stream, actually I would have been surprised not to see one, it was ideal ouzel habitat.

Whale! I spotted it from our hotel balcony, couldn't have been more than 100 feet from the rocks. Probably a California Gray, didn't see a distinct dorsal like an Orca, which is the only other common one that close in. Saw it surface 5 or six times, and blow air a couple of times too. That was the first time I've seen a whale (in the wild), so I was pretty thrilled.

Didn't see any owls, or a pileated woodpecker, but did get some other good bird spots, including Whimbrels, a Peregrine falcon nest (that was cheating though, there was a park volunteer with a big scope showing them off at Cape Meares), several Osprey, Bald Eagles, and Turkey Vultures.

Next weekend I'm thinking about going up to Mt. St. Helens. It's been a while and I have Golden Eagle passport itching to get used.

Two great tastes...

One more down in my effort to watch all 27 movies that Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were in together. This time it was I, Monster, a remarkably faithful adaptation of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde. Lee does a lot of ackting, since they (rightly) opted not to use a lot of make-up to transform him in into the monster. The odd co-star was Michael Des Barres, before he was a rock star. I actually think he's a pretty good actor for a rock star, Waxwork II notwithstanding.

Hey, did you know Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee were both in the Olivier Hamlet? Freaky.

Owls and their allies

After a trip to the Audubon Society's sanctuary I've determined that the small owl I've seen near dusk at Oak's Bottom is a Northern Saw-whet, and not a Northern Pygmy like I had thought. It's been so dark when we saw it that we couldn't see any coloring, just the shape. The Pygmy they had at the sancuary was much smaller, and the Short-eared was the wrong head shape. It's good to have that mystery cleared up, and I know Audubon would be able to help.

Then we went for a walk across the road at a more isolated area of the sanctuary and a plantsman doing some work over there said, "do you want to see an owl?" "Sure!" He showed us a little path, pointed up, and there it was. A big Barred owl, up in a big fir, preening. Aaron and I were both really suprised at how big it was, probably about 14 inches tall, and bulky. It was in the same spot on our way back, and the guy said it nested in that tree last year, too. Very cool.

Other new birds this week, Wilson's warblers at the Audubon, and some Lesser goldfinches have been frequenting my thistle feeder in the back yard, usually I just see Americans, but this week I've seen at least one pair of Lessers. The house finches are also back, and one's an orange variant, which I've never seen before, only in field guides.

Really looking forward to going to the coast this coming weekend, and planning on a couple of hikes in old-growth, so who knows what we'll see, maybe even a Spotted owl! I'm just hoping for another Pileated woodpecker. Saw one a couple weeks ago in the Tillamook forest, it was awesome.

Eurotrochilus inexpectatus

Fossil Hummingbird found in Europe is 30-million years old.

"My mind is a little blown."

How cool is that?

It's been a lot of ass-busting for my primary client over the last month, and last night we got together with the print staff for a little wrap-up over drinks. Couple mojitos, some sushi, print gossip. Then my client tells me she's got a little gift for me in the car, which she gives me on the way out.

An iPod. Wow! She's so cool! Now I have all the toys! The embarassing thing is that it's got more hard-drive space than my internal (not counting apps and system, and mountains of work files), which is making me need a fat external even more. It would be sad to have an iPod and only put like 2 Gigs of tracks on it, which is all I can handle on my laptop, and stupidly you can't rip from CDs directly to the iPod, you have to import them into iTunes first. That's my first complaint about the iPod. And the earbuds suck, but then again all earbuds suck, and I just gave away my wrap-arounds, so I'll have to pick up some more headphones too.

Yay! Now I can look cool on the bus with all the students. I really need to get a new cell phone 'cus my old one makes me look like a hillbilly. Kids these days with their new-fangled whatchamahoozits, how are we old folks supposed to keep up?

Stay off the grass

Apparently, some commisioner in New York wants to stop a demonstration in Central Park because it would ruin the Great Lawn. The article slightly hints at the real dangers to the lawn, big concerts and festivals, that do much more damage to the sod than a demonstration would.

Oh, how I wish that one of the wusses running for Mayor/Commissioner in Portland would take a stand like this and protect Waterfront Park. I worked near the park for many years, and it's almost never usable, and most of the year it's a slimy mudhole that runs the length of downtown. And for what? The Cinco de Mayo Festival, the Bite, the Beer Festival, the Blues Festival, and the worst of them all, the dreaded Rose Festival. For more than half the year a large part of the park is wrapped in ugly chain-link fence, the grass is ripped from its roots, and thousands of out-of-towners swarm around it buying over-priced concessions. And after the festivals, what are we left with? An eyesore. I don't think that's what Tom McColl had in mind for using the park.

Any candidate who advocates moving the festivals to the parking lot of Clackamas Town Center has my vote. And anyone running on the platform of getting rid of the Rose Festival entirely, probably has the vote of most of the city.

Invasive Species

The Invasive Species Weblog is a great source of information on everything from introduced bugs to fish to fungi that are endangering native species worldwide. Having spent a little of my time wrestling with the dreaded Himalayan blackberries and English ivy, I'm pretty sympathetic. I also witnessed first-hand what havoc the introduced Indian Crow has wreaked on Dar es Salaam, where you can hardly spot a native bird anymore. Oh, and don't get me started on the bloody English Sparrows who have pushed most of the other songbirds out of my yard. I think I've seen English Sparrows in every city on every continent I've ever visited.

As if global ecosystems didn't have enough trouble, having to battle with foreign invaders for homes and food is taking its toll. Down in Oaks Bottom (a wetland preserve near my home) they've been doing everything they can to wipe out blackberries and locust trees. The results can be pretty ugly, whole slopes that are just wilted and broken brambles, nothing else can grow with the blackberries, so when they're killed off there's nothing there. For a while, slowly natives come back, but the blackberries are always back in control after a year or so. The birds benefit a little from the berries and the bramble, but they'd be just as well off with native salmonberries and salal.

Last summer we went to Dinosaur National Monument in Colorado during a massive swarming of Mormon Crickets (a large, loud, and colorful grasshopper). The park had some signs up about them, but people kept asking why they didn't spray for them. The staff kept having to say that they were native species, and the swarm was periodical, totally natural, and just another part of the ecosystem. I keep thinking that the idiotic "kill it if it grosses you out" mentality is a big factor in aiding and abetting invasives. Without healthy native competition they move right on in. And having no native predators means they stick around and become more and more entrenched.

Makes me want to get my shovel out and start digging all the blackberries and Virginia creepers out of my sloppy neighbors' yards. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem.

That's not a conversation, that's Keno

Thanks to Nelson for reminding me of the Get Your War On cartoons. This series about Bush's press conference reminds me of that part in Crumb where they're looking at some of the comics he and his brother did as kids, and the text started overwhelming the characters in the boxes. Brilliant.

May Day '04

It was a rather lame May Day here in "Little Beiruit." The rally was very sparsely attended, all the more surprising since it was a weekend, the weather was nice, and there was going to be a major national political figure in attendance. I don't think there were even 1,000 people, a far cry from years past. What was the deal? It's usually such a big deal. There were way more signs than people, and the unused ones were left in the park at the start of the march. Very sad.

It was good to see Kucinich speak. He's a very good speaker, and read the audience, and had something to tell them that was not out of a can. He spoke directly to the ILWU about Taft-Hartley, which has been a big point in Portland's recent labor history. He had just come from a breakfast with the Longshoremen, so I guess it shouldn't have been too surprising.

I almost wish I was registered as a Democrat so I could vote for him in the primary. I don't think I've seen a presidential candidate in person since Jesse Jackson came to my high school in '88. Damn, that was a long time ago.