Random Saturday Thoughts

[eregyrn]

1. Why is it that the mockingbird, which is capable of imitating the calls of other melodius birds (the cardinal and the chickadee, to name two that I can reliably identify), has, as its own call, a sound that is reminiscent of nothing so much as a squeaky garden-gate hinge? (Tim Powers once noted that their call sounds like they are saying "

Comments

[telepresence]

1. No firm opinion. Although a bird making car alarm sounds might be amusing.

3. No firm opinion. Although yes, Corsairs are cool.

2. You Are Whacked. I didn't even know your house had Wolf Spider season. I may never visit again. You must order the cats to kill them all immediately. *Shudder* etc etc.

[eregyrn]

3. No firm opinion. Although yes, Corsairs are cool.

Have you ever seen the show? Starring Robert Conrad. The pilot also had some familiar names who were in the series (like Robert Ginty, and John Laroquette), and Dana Elcar (I'm not sure if he was in the series or not), and a bunch more of Hey, It's That Guy.

Also, it was an early Stephen J. Cannell effort. Qual. E. Tee. (Actually, it had higher production values than a lot of his later stuff. It's kind of like... if SJC did early M*A*S*H*.)

2. You Are Whacked. I didn't even know your house had Wolf Spider season. I may never visit again. You must order the cats to kill them all immediately. *Shudder* etc etc.Don't be silly; the cats are oblivious. Also, it's not that bad. It's like at the old Sardis offices -- Wolf Spider Season only lasts as long as it takes the baby wolf-spiders to realize that my house doesn't actually contain their prey, and they all go elsewhere. And that doesn't take long. I've actually only seen, like, 3

[telepresence]

Oh yeah. I wasn't a huge devoted fan or anything, but I've seen several episodes. It was syndicated on UHF in Philly for years. And you're right, for a Stephen J Cannell show it was fairly low on cheese.

[telepresence]

And see...in my world, the washing machine would be filled with like...tasty spider treats. Some nice aromatic flies or something. Or maybe I'd install some kind of ultrasonic spider call that they'd find irrestistible. And once all the spiders in a 1 mile radius were all milling around in the basket of the washing machine, I, gibbering and cackling in my hardened spider proof bunker, observing via closed circuit cameras, would flip a switch and the lip would slam down *kathunk*. And then I'd set the washing machine to the anti-gentle cycle. Or frappe.

That would be awesome.

[my_tallest]

Wolf spiders big scary jaw things look like mustaches. Earwing mandibles look ucky, plus those tail things. But wolf spiders look like they should be in a barbershop quartet.

[eregyrn]

No, see, these are BABY wolf-spiders. Therefore they are far too tiny to see their Big Mandibles. Seriousl, these things are, like, the size of... the "B" on this screen.

I didn't say I was wild about adult wolf-spiders. One appeared in the window-well of my car today, and I had to use an old drinking-straw to flick it off the car. Besides I'm sure it will find a lot more prey in the grass, than on my car. I hope.

[chelidon]

Yes, Corsairs are way cool, and I loved that series, too. When my father was CO for the Marine Corps fighter squadron which was in some way or another the direct descendent of the one in the series, he got all of the then-surviving members of the squadron together and threw them a somewhat legendary kick-ass party (this was in Hawaii, and I believe he finagled them free military transport, so almost all came). They're still wild and wacky after all these years, if a bit slower. And somewhere around here, I have a piece of squadron letterhead with a note to me and all of their signatures -- including Pappy Boyington.

[eregyrn]

Ooooooh!

Yeah, this presentation by the History Channel was quite interesting, as leading into commercial breaks they often had little clips of comments from actual members of the 214; and then they also had two historians on hand who'd written books about Boyington and the squadron respectively, talking about the historical accuracy (or lack thereof) of the film/series. Which was cool. It was noted that most of the pilots weren't necessarily as edgy to start with as the film suggested; but that yeah, socially speaking, as a squadron, they pretty much came to deserve their rowdy reputation.

Apparently the DVD set has an interview with Boyington, which would be interesting.

[chelidon]

Nifty, maybe I can borrow it from you at some point (that is, if we ever see ya... ;>) If you haven't run across it already, there's a pretty good synopsis here:

http://www.acepilots.com/usmc_boyington.html

[ex_hedgies507]

It is Wolf Spider Season. Baby wolf-spiders keep turning up in unexpected places,

We are curently in the midst of ant swarming season. Oh my god. So HUGE. Billions of Nasty Things with wings and everything. Ick.

As for that screwdriver.. have you tried the kind that comes in an eyeglasses repair kit?

[eregyrn]

Yuck. With WINGS? YUCK.

I'd wonder if it was carpenter ants (we used to get those at 4 Walnut; I don't so much here, but I do see the occasional one), but I don't know if those ever involve wings.

Yeah, am going to try to get an eyeglass repair kit at, like, CVS when I'm out today. I just couldn't face getting home at the end of a long string of errands, and then having to go out and hunt down something else last night.

[jenlev]

i love what you said about the mockingbird. making a choice to sing a specific song for whatever reason is quite charming. well, maybe not *every* reason. hee!

and of course the packaging would leave a few details out. or perhaps write them as tiny as the screwdriver required to put the batteries in. yeah for eyeglass repair kits. *g*

[eregyrn]

The eyeglass repair kit (I don't own one, yet) is my next plan. Although, I didn't think those had philips-heads. I'll find out, I guess. It's that or march back into the Radio Shack store and brandish it at them and complain bitterly about the whole "you need to buy a specialized tool, which costs extra, in order to deal with this product" thing. Which I hate. I hate it anyway, and I hate it more when they don't even tell you, so you get all the way home at the end of a long round of errand-running, and all you can do is look at this and think, "oh, for fuck's sake", because there's no way you're hauling yourself out again at that point to hunt down the stupid little tool.

[jenlev]

i hate that moment when i arrive home *at last*, only to discover that i have to turn right around and go back out for more stuff. ack. and after being around noise and activity *all* day long it's wonderful to arrive home to peace and quiet.

this makes teleporting even more of an important option. still, cracks me up in an existential way that the people who put these packages together are so immersed in their specialized field, that they *forget* to include the important details. *sigh*

i once had a person at the store open the package before i bought it, at which point we discovered that they hadn't included all the parts anyway. is it some kind of murphy's law shopping karma?

i hope you have a nice quiet errand free day. *hugs*

[eregyrn]

:) The main question for today is whether I will get off my butt, and out kayaking. It's possible...