Madison, IN

When I fought my way out of sleep this morning, I couldn't quite distinguish between what had been my dreams and what we're actual images and thoughts about my recent reality. The confusion made me wonder humbly, "Why did I wake up, anyway?"

My bladder answered, "!! (Duh)"

Of course.

It makes me wonder, though. What are the mechanisms of brain and bod that determine whether we sleep or wake?

Those of us prone to insomnia and consequent daytime sleepiness are, of course, conscious of the influence of stress and caffeine and other considerations, but exactly what, I wonder, is the actual internal bargaining about that allows for a daytime nap while driving and forbids seven hours straight sleep at the socially acceptable time?

I haven't fallen asleep while driving for years (I think) but that's only because I'm onto myself.

I know I'm lucky to be alive, though. What was wrong with my internal safety system that allowed it to happen at all?

(And don't blame the automobile. Sentries keeping watch under war conditions have suffered the same problems.)

*Men, Women & Children  Excellent film about the pitfalls of modern parenting. Oh, and much more entertaining stuff.

*Mandela  Biopic about the great man that really brings home what the achievements of the ANC and Ma deal cost him. 

Madison, IN

A wonderful thing about this part of the country is (are?) the old historic mansions abounding.

Today I got to visit Aurora, IN (like Madison, on the Ohio River) and visit Hillforest Museum, which has some sweet surprises for the visitor. One docent, Suzanne, was stately in a lavender mid-nineteenth century ball gown complete with hoops, the other had a travel outfit from later in the same century. The house itself is over 160 years old.

The other surprises I will leave for you to discover when you visit, but I'll say this much: I was fooled!

The volunteers at Hillforest made a tasty and very filling lunch which was paid for by Historic Madison Inc. I was along as a docent trainee, and I have to say, I had a shining example to follow! Thankfully, the sites that HMI offers to the public are not so large. Hopefully I can master enough information to do a good job by next year when my services will be needed.

There's another home nearby, Veraestae, I have yet to see. One big mansion chock full of furniture, art, and history is quite enough for one day. 

*The Duke of Burgundy  Surrealistic film about compulsion, obsession and the life cycles of lepidoptera. I guess. Who knows? Maybe some psychiatrist. Erotic.

Yesterday

*Aqui Entre Nos  Kind of silly and kind of funny. I can only read subtitles, so some of the humor might not have been translatable.

Madison, IN

A bubble is no place to be.

There's a reason that the word bubble is used for an inflated stock price, an imaginary world, a misplaced mistaken faith.

In fact, unless your bubble is on terra firma, it won't even sustain your own weight. (My bubble, of course, is another matter - say we all. Ha, ha ha!)

No, seriously, from outer space doesn't even our dear Earth look like a bubble? Spherical, swirly, surrounded by diaphanous layers of gases....

What was my point, you ask?

...I don't know.

I think it just popped itself!

*The Way Four individuals end up walking together on pilgrimage in Spain. It has its strained moments, but all-in-all a very good film. I must confess that if it involves hiking through beautiful country I'm bound to like it!

Madison, IN

Gee, now that we have in this country supposedly separated church and state, can we possibly see a little less news on the subject?

Although I would certainly rather vote for Pope Francis for President than Donald What's-his-name (shut up, birthers, I know, I know!) I really would rather see an update on what all two hundred fifty-odd countries are doing these days than see two hours of coverage about the papal visit.

And I know, I know that sometimes I lazily refer to the U.S. as America, neglecting the fact that America refers to the whole Western Hemisphere, but I'm not read by millions. It really bugs me when TV commentators equate Western civilization with the world.

There are more people in the Middle and Far East! Stop being so geocentric in your enthusing about the Pope's importance.

And I promise I will try to stop being so U.S.centric (ha, ha uscentric) myself.

(Now as for not being eccentric, that's another order. I make no promises.)

*Hungry Hill  Sorry, just too dumb.

Madison, IN

*Little Women  The old black and white with Katherine Hepburn. We enjoyed it but didn't love the casting of the patronizing professor. (Obviously there were one or two things we didn't like about the script, either.)

September 23, 2015                                       Madison, IN

Recent sightings while walking around the neighborhood:

a praying mantis with brown, black and whitish markings crossing a sidewalk amidst fallen fruit and leaf litter. With each step he paused and swayed gently forward and back as if he were a dead leaf being stirred by the wind.

a seven-foot lambs' quarters plant! Ah, southern Indiana.

last and least, not a sighting at all but a smelling - the dog-poop block, which always smells bad because of the piles of dog poop in the miniscule narrow parkway. Ha, ha, the other day I watched the pedestrian ahead of me take the route I usually take. She started on the right side of the street to avoid the dog on the left side that likes to ambush passersby, then jaywalked across the street at an angle to get away from the dog-poop side of the street. Exactly my usual path. Good thing it's not a busy street.

What do you know, it was a sighting after all.

*McFarland, USA  If you watch this without at least one little tear in one eye, you are not a human being.

*A Woman's Face  Evil intent! Sleigh chases in the snow! Last minute - no, I don't want to ruin it for you.

September 22, 2015                                      Madison, IN

Sunday I made a jalapeno very sharp cheddar cheese whole wheat bread that, when it came out of the oven, was to die for. It still tasted very good today and tomorrow night it will be gone.

I was aiming for a healthy loaf that delivered solid taste value rather than the mere hint of fragrance of chile and cheese offered by every other wimpy white loaf I have encountered in the past.

I used so much laboriously seeded and minced jalapeno that I feared for the lives of the yeast but the bread rose (or when speaking of the agency of yeast is it "raised?") just fine. It was, in fact, a large, airy, succulent and tasty loaf.

It makes me wonder again: is flour currently sold as "whole wheat" from a gmo strain that has a smaller germ than the wheat we used to use? Or is it merely ground finer than I was able to do by hand at home?

I didn't always grind my own wheat though. I also bought in bulk at the co-op, and that did not produce a noticeably different grain from what I ground myself.

The whole thing makes me want to grind my teeth! Now I shall have to look for (or order from afar) whole wheat flour specifically touted as non gmo and undoubtedly spend time, energy, and money doing so - all because of my damned curiosity.

Curses! Fighting modern life - it's no wonder we get old.

I will, of course, report on the results of my researches - probably many weeks hence.

(Pardon my high-flown language - I've been reading Edmund Crispin. Fun, fun, fun!)

*Mostly Martha  A loveable film that takes its time.

*Results  Interesting film that engages without mind-bending background music. We all have seen movies that can't make it without music during every second. This one makes it, but is that why it's a little odd? Nah, I think it is the characters. 

September 21, 2015                                                     Madison, IN

Wow! First day of Fall! (First day of Spring, I wanted to say. If I were in Brazil, I could say it. Now there's an idea for you: switch hemispheres exactly on the equinox twice a year.)

If a person did that, though, she might miss not only that sweet feeling of release and freedom brought by Spring, but also that "coming to terms" with reality that's encouraged by Autumn.

My thought for this first day of Fall, therefore, is a practical one:

Squeezing the last second of work and the last ounce of physical and emotional energy out of your employees on a daily basis is counterproductive. Not only does the operation work less smoothly when someone gets sick, but the stress makes people get sick more often.

The work environment becomes so burdensome that the employee develops an "Anything is better than this!" attitude and, correct or not, departs for greener pastures.

Even if such a stressed employee doesn't leave his job voluntarily, an individual drained by his day is more likely to have an accident driving home.

The whole vicious cycle is just counterproductive.

Hmmm... come to think of it, maybe changing the hemisphere every demi-year would be counterproductive, too. Think of the expense!

I sure would, though, like to see Brazil.

* Prize Winner from Defiance, Ohio  We loved this film about a talented and compassionate woman with an unusual source of income.

September 20, 2015                                                       Madison, IN

Ha, ha I just ran across a note to myself "androsterol sex pheromone of boar saliva" I found in a website about truffles.

Yum, yum.

Makes me wonder if this country's requirement that food workers use gloves to protect us from typhoid and suchlike also protects us from the wonderful flavor-enhancing pheromones we could be inhaling (and ingesting) if our food could come into contact with the flesh of sexy young chefs both male and female.

Ha, ha it even (grossly) makes me wonder if they should have let those teenage fast-food workers continue to spit and ejaculate into the refried beans. Who knows? Maybe they provided a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime taste experience to that night's customers!

Oh, shut up! I'm only wondering....

* It Should Happen to You   One of the silliest films we've seen in a long time and still very sweet - with a very young Jack Lemon.

*Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte  Whew! My partner: "Well, that was quite a rollercoaster ride of a movie!"

September 18, 2015                                                Madison, IN

Why do Americans seem to want a CEO for President? Do they really like corporate culture so much? Do they like working for corporations? Do they like doing business with corporations? Really?

Why would they want to incorporate the government?

What we need is another trust-busting president, another New Deal President. If we are going dynastic, how about a Roosevelt?

Whatever happened to the Roosevelts?

*Suspect Zero  This movie is just weird. Don't waste your time. An attempted synthesis of science fiction, investigation, and art film. A mess.

*Young Victoria  Charming film about a monarch who, in my lifetime of just hearsay about her, was criticized or at best examined with faint praise. Almost makes me want to study her reign, but I would sure rather just see another movie of this quality.

September 17, 2015                                               Madison, IN

Who would check her email every day? Checking your email every day would be like joining the flagellantes or Penitentes or whatever they're called, each email being a "singular knife" of guilt.

The wolves, Democrats, bees, needed legislation, political prisoners, political refugees, student debt, social security, planned parenthood and thirty other endangered causes stuff my mailbox (and would, if they could, stuff my guilt complex) every single day (Sundays not excepted.)

Giving doesn't give you any relief from the barrage. Just as some Christian admonished Christians to do good works with the right hand and not let the left one know what the other is doing, these organizations take your money as if it were a daily snack. There is no feedback loop that tells itself to leave you alone for a year or so. Next day, pant pant slobber it's back for more. Talk about split brains!

Someone needs to figure out how to do surgery on organizations that send out email accounts to integrate them - kind of like the opposite of surgery that splits a brain.

Or embed them with memory gifted with a shred of gratitude or failing that warn them about killing the goose that lays the golden egg. 

Since I can't face my daily virtual cleaning chores I miss the e-mails that tell me of changed meeting dates and overdue books buried in the piles of donation requests so I end up giving money to the local library and walking to cancelled book club meetings.

Oh well, paying fines and going on walks are activities more fun than shadow cleaning.

And they are way more real.

*The Possessed  Trying old film about loss of sanity following rejection by a lover.

*Hitchcock  Movie about the back-story of the creation of Hitchcock's Psycho. Enjoyable.

September 14, 2015                                               Albuquerque, NM

Finally I can smile again!

I never realized how difficult it is to feel happy if you can't smile.

Yesterday my daughters and I had a photo taken with me smiling very slightly. Back home in Indiana, my partner saw it and worried that I looked a little down. Not at all! We had just heard an enjoyable concert of Celtic music at Elena Gallegos Park in the foothills of the Sandias.

Not to worry, luv! And today I can crack a big grin without cracking skin.

I am positively ecstatic.

September 13, 2015                                               Albuquerque, NM

One of the best things about Albuquerque is its proximity to the beautiful Jemez Mountains.  Yesterday the family took Highway 4 up to the Jemez Falls campground in the National Forest for a day hike which was really almost a stroll.

It was the site of a week-long family camping trip back in 1983 which my son remembers with some bitterness because we hiked two miles in to the warm springs and back without giving him any aid except verbal encouragement. Don't make the same mistake, parents! Even as an adult he is disinclined to give himself up to a similar experience. This is one individual you will not encounter on the Pacific Crest Trail.

At any rate that hike was not an option. My two grandsons, ages three years and one month respectively, were along for the hike so we chose the path to the waterfall overlook - a roundtrip half mile.

I cannot tell you the power of the smell of sunny dust and ponderosa pine up there. Ponderosas are tall, long-needled pines. Put your nose right up to their trunks as if for a kiss and you'll find their sap smells like vanilla.

The campsite is still primitive but unlike thirty years ago it now has a tap for drinking water. Recent dry weather didn't allow for any mushroom sightings this time around - just as well, perhaps. As I recall, one slime mold we saw looked as if someone had dumped a small skillet of scrambled eggs on the ground, and one of my daughters recalled we thought it changed its position over the course of a few hours.

Another attraction is the red bank of clay that provided modeling opportunity for the children. I still have a piece of the bear my younger daughter molded and the comic figurine of my eldest only broke to worthless a couple of years ago. You can probably still find this red clay along the path to the warm springs.

A short drive away is another favorite trail that meanders creekside, with a swimming hole that kids can jump into if the water is high enough and the wind low enough.

Not bad opportunities for entertainment in a gorgeous setting costing circa $10 a night.

September 12, 2015                                                         Albuquerque, NM

It's funny... why do people care so much about what a person calls the concept or power or being (ha, ha, even in the abstract it is impossible to categorize) that allows us to function gracefully in the life roles we have (consciously or otherwise) chosen or been forced into?

Fate, God, the Universe are all three just names for the powerful forces that we feel have placed us where we are in life. Why do we expend so much energy fighting about what to call that pressure?

Doesn't it just cloud our issues, allowing us to deflect attention from our real problems?

My family was talking about Mormon polygamy last night. Maybe Joseph Smith could be an example of what I'm talking about.

Joseph Smith had an issue with his libido, evidently. One wife was not enough to keep him sexually content. Well, no big deal. A lot of us have that problem at some point in our lives. Most of us, however, admit it to be a problem. Our society requires monogamy.

What does Smith do? He has a vision in which God requires him to accept multiple wives. End of problem: he takes multiple wives, and what's more, his other followers must do so also.

Ha, ha I think I just answered my own question. Can you imagine using the Universe or Fate to justify behaviors that go against societal laws our Western culture has accepted for centuries?

 No, that's a job for God alone.

Ha, ha, ha, ha.

Sigh. I hope God or Fate or the Universe will allow me to sleep now.

Or is that a little task for me?

September 11, 2015                                                         Albuquerque, NM

Spent a good part of yesterday sitting in the shade on my son's patio contemplating the blue sky and ripening pomegranates and trying to identify the birds eating the ripe grapes in the nine-different-varieties  mini-vineyard.

This is the first time in ages I've been able to just sit outside for so long except camping and I am trying to figure out why. After all, Madison, Indiana has glorious days, too. Why don't I hang outside more?

Privacy? Sitting outside in our neighborhood at home is a social act. There is almost always a stranger around. I always thought I liked that, but maybe not so much.

Solitude? Well, no. Half my time on the patio was spent yakking on the phone and eating salad with my grandson and the family Labrador Retriever.

No humidity? Yes! Heat is much more comfortable here.

Peace. Definitely. Along the river park close to home there's almost always someone (including whole crews from the local women's penitentiary) mowing, spraying from a golf cart, leafblowing.  Noise abounds. If there were any sounds coming from the outside world yesterday afternoon, I didn't hear them.

Maybe leaving home is the best way to learn about yourself.

(and here I always thought I just wanted to see the world.)

September 10, 2015                                                         Albuquerque, NM

Weather glorious here. I love the way there is usually an evening cooldown (ha, ha - I could swear I've heard that word, but it sure looks funny in print!)

Yesterday was productive and fun, but it is family reunion time and we stayed fairly close to home. There are some beautiful neighborhoods here and staying close to home is a pleasure. A leisurely walk in the late evening is a wonderful way to end the day.

The New Mexico State Fair is on! We plan to go this evening. Since I've never been to another state's big fair I can't fairly compare, but I'm willing to bet it is unique.

The prospects: Navajo fry bread sandwiches (now called Indian fry bread because all the tribes make it. Soon to be called Native American fry bread? We shall see!) Actually, thinking back, I think they were called Navajo tacos. I haven't had fry bread for decades because it is deep fried white flour, but if there are no tempting alternatives I'm going for it!

In the past the offerings have been Native American dances, horse racing and shows among the offerings. All the home and farming arts are represented, but who knows what the special feature is for the night? The family has chosen Thursday night because it is relatively mellow.

 

Sounds good to me - I'm goin' with the flow!

September 9, 2015                                                           Albuquerque, NM

So exciting to be able to write from a new city and state again!  The airline experience I had, though definitely partly blameable on the thunderstorm that kept us on the tarmac for an hour or so in Chicago, was oddly reminiscent of my last experience on a bus which resulted in my refusing to take a bus on a long trip since.

Any traveler knows that there are multiple conditions in life beyond anyone's control. If space, amenities, and comfort have gone below levels to at least partially compensate for this, it is no wonder Americans won't give up their love for the automobile. But oh oh oh did I see magnificent clouds and landscape views unobtainable from a car seat!

I blame the degradation of the quality of experience provided by our long-distance public conveyances on economic inequality resulting in no middle class resulting in no middle-class services, but I won't harp on that old theme. We are rapidly becoming a third world country, that's all. The new first world is one global and I'm not the first to say it.

I'm here to visit family including two absolutely adorable grandchildren, so far having a wonderful time (fat itchy red lips and all (and still my 3 yr old grandson actually said, "How come you are always so beautiful?" Needless to say, I am now his slave.))

I had a wonderful big bowl of posole last night but was too out of it to get the name of the restaurant. Will try to insert that later. Not being one of those writers who manage to churn out substance while tending a family, I may not be writing much for a week or so. 

Will do my best to report anything travelogue-worthy or "profound" or humorous that transpires in this sunny dry clime.

September 7, 2015                                                           Madison, IN

Nothing like getting onto the Internet and having a company try to sell me a dress that I'm already wearing. Yesterday the ad showed two dresses, both of which I already own.

Are they trying to get me to buy more? Not likely.

Maybe my ordering via phone kept them out of the feedback loop of my life and also, it would seem, of their own business.

It must be a case of the third tentacle on the right not knowing what the second on the left is doing.

It's your business! Show me something new.

Everyone else is worried about big entities tracking their every move.

Me - I'm wondering if I exist.

What did you say? Labor Day?

My partner went to work and I did three loads of laundry.

Yay, Labor! I know what you are.

I work, therefore I exist.

Whew.

*The Cobbler  Cheap thrills. We kept waiting for it to shape up to something worthwhile, but it didn't. With thirty-five minutes to go, we just gave up on it.

September 6, 2015                                                          Madison, IN

A week ago I was bragging about my black bread. It was good. No, I mean it was really good!

A couple of days later I had really dry lips, I was drinking a ton of water, and the next day woke up with a swollen lip. I began to suspect my wonderful bread a couple mornings later. Maybe I was too cavalier about the way I threw in darkening agents.

Maybe my allergy is to caffeine!

The thought brought me up short and made me reflect a little. Over a year ago I cut way back on caffeine to reduce loss of calcium from my bones but somehow I had lost sight of that.

The ego gratification I got from making pumpernickel bread made me forget that caffeine is a drug. I can't drink nearly as much alcohol as many of my acquaintance and the same is probably true for caffeine.

And come to think of it, that really dark rye we used to buy at the supermarket was a really small loaf with thin slices about 2.5 inches square. Best in small doses for the likes of me, and maybe for you. Beware!

Anyway, goodbye insomnia and dry-mouth and botox lip (and a further constellation of symptoms) caused by excess caffeine and anaphylaxis.

Today I made whole wheat blueberry muffins, something else I haven't made for years. Honey and eggs and milk, oh my!

They're really good... but I'm definitely limiting myself to two. Per day.

Unless I forget.

September 5, 2015                                                         Madison, IN

A few days ago I woke up with a swollen upper lip. It seems it's most likely to be an allergic reaction to detergent or the new (more concentrated) formula of what used to be my favored spot remover. Or maybe I am allergic to the shreds of tobacco or other pollutants left by other users of the apartment washing machines.

Whatever the cause, every morning lately I look as if I got snookered into a bad botox job, my top lip lording it over my lower lip as if it's trying trying to suffocate the poor thing with a pillow.

Luckily the worst of the swelling has been gone by noon and I've managed to convince myself the problem was diminishing - until today.

Today it occurred to me to try balancing my puffy upper lip by pouting with my lower. Maybe, I hoped, it would give me a more balanced (if age-inappropriate) look.

Good thing I tried it in front of a mirror. To my horror, my entire lower face took on the look of choppy water pierced by menacing shark fins (shadows formed by crevices, evil consequences of pimple-pinching in my bored Midwestern youth). And have you ever tried to pout and smile at the same time?

I tell you, models do have special talents that rival a bellydancer's ability to rotate her right hip clockwise and left shoulder counterclockwise at the same time. 

It is almost two o'clock in the afternoon now. For a while I can forget trying to invent ways to camouflage the damage my hyperactive immune system seems intent on wreaking upon my appearance.

But if you think you don't care what other people think, try walking around with what looks like plastic surgery failure - completely undeserved, unasked-for and unpaid for!

Oh I am so glad I'm not running for President.

*The Longest Week   Oh, what's the point? Witty, but otherwise why care? The film tries to turn imagined criticism of itself within its own dialogue but doesn't succeed with me.

*The Murder Man  Fast-paced and odd by today's standards. Another tortured film role for Spencer Tracy - but an early one - 1935.

September 4, 2015                                                         Madison, IN

*The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete  Some masterful acting in this hard Brooklyn tale of survival.

*In This Our Life  Horror family story - no special effects needed.

September 3, 2015                                                          Madison, IN

When did all the rhetoric arise about respecting the beliefs of others? I don't remember receiving any expectation of respect in my religious instruction as a girl. To the contrary, we were pretty much taught to expect mockery and possibly even martyrdom.

We were taught very well, however, the right of others and ourselves to believe what we (or our religion of choice) wanted to believe. I have always respected freedom of religion.

My mother and father did try, however, to teach us to respect the feelings of others. You don't tromp on the religious beliefs of other people because you don't want to hurt them.

If those same others rudely try to offend me, however, all bets are off. Although I was raised to be a pacifist, those around me had tongues that were sometimes barbed and our pacifism did not extend to solely placating speech.

I would never try to incite anyone to physical violence against others, or even name-calling.

I have, however, always been more prepared for verbal sparring than fisticuffs when it comes to self-defense.

After all, according to the Bible, God had the first word, so any poor words of mine are by definition merely responsive and secondary.

*The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus  Wonderfully different and bizarre movie that held my interest. It just seemed to me that the moral choices the characters (well, no - I don't want to ruin it for you!)

*The 100-Year-old Man Who...  I liked this much better as a movie than as a book. Funny. 

September 2, 2015                                                       Madison, IN

Some of the county clerks in Kentucky are refusing to give gay people licenses to marry in spite of our Supreme Court ruling that failing to do so is a violation of their constitutional rights. At least one of them is solving the issue of equality under the law by temporarily refusing to issue marriage licences to anyone at all.

A few years ago in Benton County, Oregon, the same thing happened for exactly the opposite reason: an injunction against the county clerk's issuing licenses to gays was obeyed in the same way - no marriage for anyone.

When it happened in Benton County, Oregon I thought it was a brilliant move. Now, when practiced by the other side, I find myself not so well pleased.

Of course, this caused me to soul-search a little. Sure, the Oregon injunction was temporary while the U.S. Supreme Court decision is, to intents and purposes, permanent, but still - am I being inconsistent by disapproving the Kentucky clerk's actions?

I decided I'm being consistent, the common thread of my feeling being in favor of the pursuit of happiness as often as possible. Our laws say it is okay for gays to pursue the privileges our legal system confers upon marriage because the constitution requires equal treatment under the law for everyone.

One county clerk was televised as saying that for her(him?) it was a matter of life or death. My response to that is, "Oh, get over yourself! You're a clerk!"

I did clerical work for years. In medical offices I took care of records without concerning myself with the religions of the patients or my own beliefs about vaccinations. In law offices I notarized papers without worrying about the contents. I was just a clerk, serving the public.

If you, county clerks of America, can't in all conscious do your jobs, then resign!

The really depressing thing about this, though, is comparing this zeal for civil disobedience in opposition to people having happiness in the world (as opposed to in the afterlife) with the lack of such energy and courage shown by many when it has come to orders to commit obvious misdeeds and evils which deprived people of even their lives.

Now, there is civil disobedience worth committing, if you have the courage. Stand up for something that will personally put you at risk.

Then preach all you want about "a higher law - God's".

P.S. I just read the above-quoted clerk gets $80,000 a year for (not) doing her job. I never earned close to the equivalent of that. There ain't no justice.

*A Man Called Horse  Interesting, done maybe to the authenticity standards of the time. Caught a sloppy mistake, though I'm not poised to pounce on stuff like that. Some gorgeous scenery.

*Craigslist Joe  Lovely film, so we loved it!

*Muffin Top  Silly heroine, maybe, but great success at being funny.

September 1, 2015                                                              Madison, IN

The neighborhood's going downhill.

Today while on our walk we saw a city worker driving a golf cart along the edges of the landing lot and the sidewalks of the riverside park spraying the edges with - something. Herbicides? Pesticides?

The only birds we saw today besides water birds were the vultures.

There are so many toxins being tossed about here I'm beginning to wonder about the health of mammalian life - including us!

*Shadow of a Doubt  There's more than a shadow of a doubt about what to call this film. The title hints at courtroom drama but although there's an investigation it doesn't get that far. It's a lot of fun, though. Maybe from our seventy-year perspective I might be unfair, but I call it a farce.