Wood Ducklings

I've heard from a few people that they don't think that wood ducks are exciting. This video might change your mind. Brave little animals.

Bird Time

Interested in contributing to science and learning more about birds? Check out Cornell's ornithology website here. You can watch and track bird nesting boxes, learn about bird species and see high-def videos of owls, chickadees, wood ducks and more, all from the comfort of your own home. The wood ducklings hopping out of the nest box are really fun to watch. They look like Mexican jumping beans. Hilarious.

Staples

Aaron and I are still working towards our $35 a week grocery budget. It was Aaron's week to do the grocery shopping so I helped him out, carefully made a cost appropriate list, wrote out the meals and he went to the store. When he got back he explained to me that he had kept to the budget AND bought ten lbs of hamburger meat and a box of cocoa. Meaning he spent 35 dollars and then spent some more on what he designated as "Staples." Apparently Aaron considers massive amounts of red meat to be a household staple. I explained to Aaron that spending 35 dollars and then MORE money means you did not keep the budget. I also attempted to explain what a staple really is, something like pasta or flour or rice. He said "But cocoa is a Staple! What would we eat if we didn't have any cocoa??" So next week I got seven bucks to spend on groceries.

Martin Luther King

I almost never contribute to Katy's blog, but I thought there were some things worth noting today. ~ Aaron

On this day in 1968, Martin Luther King was shot and killed by James Earl Ray while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel (pictured above) in Memphis. He was there to support a strike by the black sanitation workers. I was not alive then, but I think it's appropriate to honor the life of a remarkable man. Interestingly, King seemed prescient that he would not live to see his dream of racial equality fully realized. The day before he died, he delivered his famous "Mountaintop" speech. In its conclusion, he acknowledged some of the death threats he had received. But he said that he was not concerned. He was not worried.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!"

That would be his last speech.

link for full text and a recording of the speech


Interestingly, on the night of King's death, Robert F. Kennedy was running for President. He would be killed two months later by an assassin, but on the night of King's death, he was to speaking to a largely black audience in the racially divided city of Cleveland. The chief of police told him not to go out. That was not really bad advice as evidenced by nationwide riots after King's death. But RFK did go out and informed the crowd of King's death. And then he did something strange. He quoted Aeschylus. Now most Americans don't know who Aeschylus is (though I'm sure you recognize him as the Greek poet who wrote the Orestia trilogy). If his remarks were screened by consultants, I'm sure they would have begged him not to say what he did. A reference to Aeschylus is like rhetorical windsurfing--not gonna relate to your average American, let alone a crowd of poverty stricken people in Cleveland. But RFK shot from the hip. In that moment of grief, he said, let me share with you some lines from my favorite poet, Aeschylus.

Even in our own sleep, pain which cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart,
until in our own despair,
against our will,
comes wisdom
through the awful grace of God.

Bold. Profound. Beautiful. And a pure expression of feeling and grief. Politicians now could use such a dose of sincerity and eloquence as that expressed by King and RFK. And for the rest of us, we can remember that to be at our best, we need merely to be ourselves.

Article from Time by Joe Klein on RFK's speech and political sincerity

NPR story on RFK's speech

Watch Me Beating You

Aaron and I like to play knock out together. We played last night and got into a fight because Aaron kept claiming he won with shots that had very little evidence of existing. Aaron said I was too busy shooting and rebounding to see or hear them. Sound suspicious to anyone else??
After my protests, Aaron smugly declared that he would announce to me when he was delivering a winning shot. He began to declare before every shot "Watch me beating you." Then he would miss and as he ran after the ball he would yell "Watch.....me..(gasp)...beating .... you." (Miss) "This is it. Watch! This is me beating you." Remarkably, after he decided to declare his winning moments his lead got caught in half. Irritatingly, he still beat me by two points on our last game. So there'll be a rematch. Then Aaron can watch me beating him.

Mayonnaise Wars

I was rummaging through the fridge yesterday and I noticed that our mayonnaise jar has a use by date of 4/25/08. I know I bought that mayonnaise a year or more ago and it is still about a quarter full. But I’m not worried because it isn’t any old mayonnaise, it’s the best mayonnaise in the world: Dukes! And though I am the sole mayonnaise consumer in our household I know it won’t be any trouble to eat it all in less than 23 days because I LOVE mayonnaise. I love and eat it despite Aaron’s squeamish squeals of disgust every time I take it out of the fridge. Mayonnaise is food magic. It makes anything you put it in taste just that much better. It’s like bubba gump shrimp, you can use it to make MILLIONs of delicious dishes as the Duke’s Recipe Website can attest to (here). Salads, Cakes, casseroles, dressings, and more and more.

Aaron hates it and has even taken to quoting Ambrose Bierce’s definition: “mayonnaise: One of the sauces the French serve in place of a state religion."
Aaron has even taken to sending out inflammatory emails warning others against mayonnaise. I think he may be trying to make it an election issues. Here is an excerpt from one of his emails:
I think the common use of mayonnaise in America coincided with all of our social woes. It came to the U.S. in 1905. Undoubtedly it has sapped the strength of our religious convictions.

He’s attempting to recruit people to his cause. Thankfully, our good friend Brian Roberts, who is finishing up his PHD in English at UVA, recently announced that he may be willing to engage the subject academically and give mayonnaise the serious time and research it deserves. Here, without his permission, is his response:

Thanks, Aaron, for sending along this quote, which
really is a sort of missing link between the emergent
fields of literature & religion and literature &
foodways.

Once I finish my dissertation I may write an article,
"Sanctified Mayonnaise: A Glance at Transatlantic
Religious Literature via the Opaque Prism of
Emulsified Vegetable Oil and Egg Yolks."

For research purposes, hopefully I can get some
funding for Norma (another mayonnaise hater) to spend some time in France eating
Mayonnaise in a Cathedral, a sacrifice she just may
have to make for the good of my career.

The Year

With the trees beginning to flower, I like to think of Carl Sandburg's description of spring: A STORM of white petals, Buds throwing open baby fists Into hands of broad flowers. That line alternates with the song Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree.

Here's the rest of the poem:

The Year

I

A STORM of white petals,
Buds throwing open baby fists
Into hands of broad flowers.

II

Red roses running upward,
Clambering to the clutches of life
Soaked in crimson.

III

Rabbles of tattered leaves
Holding golden flimsy hopes
Against the tramplings
Into the pits and gullies.

IV

Hoarfrost and silence:
Only the muffling
Of winds dark and lonesome—
Great lullabies to the long sleepers.