I'm on my way to LA, on the Surfliner. I splurged and got business class. Inside the car it's much like my prior train trips, only with a trifle more leg room, cleaned more thoroughly than I'm used to, and it comes with a goodie bag including a fig bar and mini-Oreos. The pleasant thing is that it's on top of a tall car, and commands an excellent ( Read more... )

News o' the morning: I wake up to find that folks at Salem State think they've identified the site of the executions in the Salem Witch Trials. It's called "Proctor's Ledge."

Also, manatees are no longer an endangered species. Endearing manatee photos at link.

Animal body parts ahoy:

Life ambitions now include owning this: Cervine Skull Mask II by artist Eric Strother. It's all the more appropriate right now, because I fell asleep in the last few minutes of a yoga class today and dreamed that there was a deer skull buried in the compost pile, and that I discovered it was growing itself into a whole new ( Read more... )

And speaking of unlikely animals--when I recently visited sovay, we fell to talking about natural history museums.  She mentioned the Chinese Water Deer, which she'd seen stuffed and mounted in such a museum during her childhood.  The Chinese Water Deer is small and dainty and cute and wide-eyed, and it has fangs.  Well, only the male has fangs, but ( Read more... )

Via joannesopercook: gaze on the adorable miniature giraffes of Sokoblovsky Farms.  I would buy one, if there weren't such a long waiting list.

Be clicking to view!

Thanks to rax for the heads-up: tame foxes are available for sale as pets in the US.  I read about what was either this program or a similar setup in one of my elementary psych textbooks, the other year.  Apparently the foxes were created in a breeding program to select for the tamest, most cuddly-natured animals, and the present generations of fox ( Read more... )