Stalking the Great Blue Heron

This was one of those magical moments of birdwatching that only comes about through patience and attentiveness. Birdwatching has saved my life in the past few years (along with troll-collecting, of course!), as it forced me to go out even during the bleakest point in the pandemic. It also requires that you be in the moment, and each time you go out, it's different. There can be mobs of birds, or virtually none. This heron was stately in his wading and fishing, and did not seem bothered by me on the shore as I followed him along. Finally he spread his vast wings and sailed away over Como Lake.

Some words to live by

 

The Troll Doll Channel: 💦I give my Dirty Trolls a BATH!💦

I seldom wash a troll's hair unless it's seriously dirty or sticky. The color can actually leach out, and the texture become frizzy and dry. But in this case there was serious dirt in the ceramic troll's hair. Not to put too fine a point on it, it was a bloody mess: though it was obviously meant to be pink, it was more of a stringy brown, especially at the ends. My cave troll was in better shape hair-wise, but I felt he still needed work. Pinkie first got a thorough shampoo, in which I really had to work the dirt out, and rinse and rinse. Cave guy was more of a swish job, but once it had been wet and fluffed and dried, a miracle happened and the mohair doubled or tripled in volume, while maintaining the nice wooly texture and contrasting coloiurs. My troll vids are getting VERY low views now, while some of my others are getting hundreds or even thousands - so I've had to adjust my expectations, though of all my videos, the bird ones and the troll ones are the most gratifying. They've helped me keep those vital hobbies going, and I have to sometimes tell myself - if even ONE person looks at my videos, it's one more than would have seen them if I didn't bother. So. . . I bother. 

The Prince and the Fraud: Prince Harry and Gabor Mate

 

'Trauma expert' Gabor Mate says he bitterly REGRETS controversial Prince Harry interview because of 'demeaning, dismissive' backlash he faced - saying 'foofoo' surrounding it took over his life and made him 'lose himself'

• Harry's conversation with the doctor, 79, was fiercely scrutinized back in March
• At the time, it was revealed Gabor had previously made anti-Zionist comments
• He has now addressed the backlash, admitting that it left him in a 'dark place'

'Trauma expert' Gabor Maté has admitted that he regrets his controversial interview with Prince Harry because the 'foofoo' surrounding it took over his entire life and made him 'lose himself.'

Back in March, the Duke of Sussex, 39, spoke with the the Hungarian-Canadian doctor, 79, about 'living with loss and the importance of personal healing,' while promoting his memoir Spare.

During their sit-down, which was live-streamed on the web and cost $33 to watch, Harry made a series of bombshell claims about growing up as a royal.

The conversation was fiercely scrutinized, especially after it was brought to light that Gabor had made a series of eyebrow-raising comments in the past - like comparing Hamas to the Jewish heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, defending Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians, and branding Israel's government as terrorists.

He is also an outspoken supporter of decriminalizing drugs, and has used the Amazonian plant ayahuasca to treat patients suffering from mental illness. 

Now, the author and physician has addressed the public's 'demeaning, dismissive, and distorted' reaction to his chat with Harry, while revealing that it left him in a really 'dark place.'

'There was an incredible social media reaction to it, which was, for the most part, so negative and so demeaning and so dismissive and so distorted,' he said during a recent appearance on Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast.

'I barely even know how to talk about it. I thought by this age I would know better, but you know what, it really got to me.'

Gabor said the backlash left him in a 'really negative state of mind' and feeling like he 'lost himself' - leading to him eventually reaching out to a psychiatrist for help.

'I was in a dark place, I'm a human being like the rest,' he continued. 'It's so difficult to ask for help but I did.'

He accused the media of twisting his words and recalled them calling him things like 'stern, overbearing, and a merchant of pain.'

After speaking to a psychiatrist, however, Gabor said he later realized that his problems didn't have to do with the criticism, but rather, stemmed from an 'old unresolved wound' from his past. 

According to Gabor, he had reservations about talking to Harry from the start, since he was uncomfortable with the idea of making people pay to watch it.

Gabor said the backlash put him a 'really negative state of mind' and resulted in him feeling like he 'lost himself' during an appearance on Steven Bartlett's The Diary of a CEO podcast

The conversation was live-streamed on the web and tickets were priced at $33. People who watched it received a copy of Harry's book, Spare

'I had a gut feeling all along that I shouldn't agree the way they set it up. Because the way it was set up, to watch it, people had to buy a copy of Harry's book,' he explained. 

'I thought, "This is not fair, four million people have already bought the book. Why can't they watch this interview?" They had to buy another copy. 

'I believed this should be a free public service from two people who are having a very interesting conversation. 

'But out of sheer opportunism I agreed to it. I didn't follow my gut feeling. I agreed to something that I didn't really like. 

'Not that I didn't like the idea of talking with him, I didn't like the idea of putting myself behind a pay wall. I lost myself just in agreeing to do it.'

Despite his regrets about the interview, Gabor insisted that he 'doesn't care' what the public thinks of him anymore.

But he said he wants people to 'see him' for who he is and 'not some distorted version.'

'I don't care if people agree with me or if they refute my ideas, but I want them to see me and what I'm actually saying, not some distorted version created by their own minds,' he concluded. 

'So what if someone says [something bad about me]. I don't live in the press. I don't live in someone else's mind. Here I am. Let them think and say what they want.'

Gabor said that after the interview, he had to reach out to a psychiatrist for help, adding, 'I was in a dark place, I'm a human being like the rest.' Harry is seen during their chat

Gabor has more than two decades of experience working with people suffering from addiction and mental illness - and he fiercely believes that all of the problems we face as adults stem from trauma we endured as children. 

Gabor has been scrutinized for comparing Hamas to the Jewish heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis, defending Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli civilians, and branding Israel's government as terrorists

He himself had a traumatic upbringing. He was born in Nazi-occupied Budapest in 1944, and when he was five months old his maternal grandparents were among the Jews murdered in Auschwitz. He was then taken from his mother and hidden with an aunt until the war ended. 

He is an outspoken supporter of decriminalizing drugs, and has used the Amazonian plant ayahuasca to treat patients suffering from mental illness. 

The psychedelic plant, which is taken as a brewed drink, causes people to experience hallucinations and other side effects, including vomiting - something Prince Harry has admitted to using to manage his 'trauma and pain.'

It remains illegal in the US, UK, and Canada, and in 2011, Canadian officials threatened to arrest Dr Maté if he didn't stop using the drug to treat his patients. 

On top of his shocking anti-Zionist comments, Gabor has also contributed to a pro-Kremlin website that defends brutal regimes around the world and has spoken warmly of the spittle-flecked Pink Floyd star and alleged 'Putin apologist' Roger Waters.

OK THEN! Time for the blogger to intervene.

I have too much to say about Gabor Mate (and won't write a poem about him, though I think I did once). I did meet the man back in 2003, interviewing him for January Magazine, an online publication which never paid me one red cent for all my hard work. He had just written his second book, When the Body Says No, which is one of those titles that sounds like a lot, but means very little. 

I think I was taken in by his guru-hood even then, though at the time he was still an actual doctor, a family practitioner working on the  cruel streets of Vancouver. He even gave me a tour of his downtown office, and showed me around the sights, i. e. the various addicts standing around in their different states of dereliction. He seemed hyper, severe, with an unreadable face that I was soon to learn only had one expression.

He's likely the only person I ever met who doesn't smile. I mean, he doesn't. In the rare "smiling" photos, it's more like a wince, with alarmingly dead eyes. He never laughs - I mean, he does not laugh. He was full of bombast during our coffee talks, but had no real warmth, no sense of the joy of living. In fact, I consider him one of the most joyless human beings I've ever met. And he cannot survive if he is not playing the role of the perpetual saviour.

Unfortunately, this has worked all too well for him, and his fans are cultish in their devotion. One even described him as "like having Jesus back here on earth". When you look at his detestable pro-Hamas views, his baffling and even frightening alliance with Russia, you've got to wonder how Jesus could have gotten so fucked up.

At any rate, though there's more, I am weary of the subject already and don't want to waste another brain cell on him. For all his Messianic posturing, the guy is about as resilient as an ice cube on a hot summer's day. There's no "there" there, no real substance, and no real joy.

The doctor has been unmasked, and he cannot stand it.. In one breath he says people's comments nearly destroyed him, then immediately says he does not care two figs about what anyone says. Hypocrisy, much? Or is his memory so faulty he doesn't remember what he said just a minute ago?

😳Back Yard Bear: OMG, he's HUGE!😳

We did not welcome this visitor to our back yard! Since then we've taken down all our bird feeders. From teeming with squawking birds and screeching squirrels, we now have NOTHING out there. Deadly silence. But we can't risk having bears habituated to our "feeding station". A fed bear is a dead bear, and though this guy's a nuisance, he is magnificent and we don't want anything to happen to him. We're on the very edge of a large green space with a creek running through it, and the creek is now full of spawning salmon  which will soon die and become appealingly stinky to the bears. We don't wish to provide them with suet and seeds for dessert.

The Troll Doll Channel: Unboxing of RARE Swedish and Irish Imports!

These guys are both extremely rare, and cost remarkably little. It's so fun doing these, and Bill now operates the camera so I don't have to use my doddering collapsible tripod that my son used for astronomy in 1985. 

The Troll Doll Channel: 💜Ready for Halloween: spooky, magical JUJU DOLL!💚

These are two of my favorite custom trolls going for a spin to the Monty Python theme. 

💚BUTTS UP! Dabbling, Dunking Ducks

Here at the duck park, the mallards are endlessly entertaining. Here a handsome drake turns himself upside-down, paddling furiously while he forages around in the muck. 

Sanzhi UFO City: Get me out of here!

 

Sanzhi UFO houses

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Sanzhi UFO houses (Chinese: 三芝飛碟屋; pinyin: Sānzhī Fēidiéwū), also known as the Sanzhi pod houses or Sanzhi Pod City, were a set of abandoned and never completed pod-shaped buildings in Sanzhi District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. The buildings resembled Futuro houses, some examples of which can be found elsewhere in Taiwan. The site where the buildings were located was owned by Hung Kuo Group.

Construction and abandonment

The UFO houses were constructed beginning in 1978. They were intended as a vacation resort in a part of the northern coast adjacent to Tamsui, and were marketed towards U.S. military officers coming from their East Asian postings. However, the project was never completed in 1980 due to investment losses and several car accident deaths and suicides during construction, which is said to have been caused by the inauspicious act of bisecting the Chinese dragon sculpture located near the resort gates for widening the road to the buildings. Other stories indicated that the site was the former burial ground for Dutch soldiers.

The pod-like buildings became a minor tourist attraction due in part to their unusual architecture. The structures have since been subject of a film, used as a location by MTV for cinematography, photographed by people, and become a subject in online discussions, described as a ghost town or "ruins of the future". The houses are referred to in the title of a track on the experimental German pianist Hauschka's 2014 LP Abandoned City.

Demolition

The buildings were scheduled to be torn down in late 2008, despite an online petition to retain one of the structures as a museum. Demolition work on the site began on 29 December 2008, with plans to redevelop the site into a tourist attraction with hotels and beach facilities.

By 2010, all of the UFO houses had been demolished and the site was in the process of being converted to a commercial seaside resort and water-park.

BLOGGER'S NOTES. This isn't the first time I encountered Pod City - I remember reading about it years and years ago. One of the photos was an aerial view that made me reel. It was like a host of evil mushrooms squatting and rotting on the ground.

This sent me into a frenzy of gif-making, some of it quite surreal. I actually found some YouTube video, very early urbex-type exploration of the insides of some of these things. I  would imagine it was taken before the demolition in 2010.

But wait. Part of me doesn't believe it's been torn down. There's just something about this story - the bisected dragon, the "curse" leading to tragic deaths and suicides - it's like King Tut's tomb, for God's sake! Why hasn't anyone written more about this? This is a whole science fiction movie waiting to be made. 

There is a slight cheat here. The yellow structures in some of the gifs are likely Futuro houses, which I don't even want to get into. They look UFO-ish in the most classic My Favorite Martian sense, with evil portals all around them that stare like malevolent eyes. There are some of them left in Taiwan, most of them rotting away, though the original Pod City is supposed to be gone. Supposed to be. If this were the X Files, Scully and Mulder would be on it by now.

http://www.stopabductions.com/

Autumn purrs and purrs!

 

Autumn was the matriarch (catriarch?)  of our cat family. She left us during the pandemic, but since then  my son's family has adopted two lovely lady cats, Moonie and Luna. Added to Shannon's Mia and Max, and of course our wonderful Bentley, we are now a five-cat family!

😳"SMOKING makes you FEEL BETTER!" How Big Tobacco Lied to the Public

Something "wonderful" happens! Big Tobacco pushed blatant lies on the public for decades, but this is one of the worst I've ever seen. You'll "feel better" when you switch to Philip  Morris! Then they list all the dreadful health effects of smoking, raw throat, burning sinuses, terrible taste and, worst of all, "that smoked-out feeling" - and ALL of these things are instantly erased! Vanished! Gone forever! 

See, folks? Smoking is only uncomfortable (meaning: DANGEROUS) when you smoke the wrong brand - that other guy's brand. Then there comes the predictable image of a doctor holding up a pack of Philip Morris to recommend them to their patients who smoke, presumably because they're SO much safer. 

Lies and more lies, and yet it went on well into  the 1980s when restaurants still had "smoking sections". I will never forget watching a documentary on Big Tobacco and hearing a former executive tell us all that there is NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BRANDS. None. Tobacco is tobacco is tobacco. NOBODY smokes for the "flavor", they smoke because they are addicted to nicotene and can't stop, and nobody "feels better" just because they switched their brand. And why did smoking make people feel so bad in the first place? Can you guess?

Bentley is Famous!

 

Bentley is famous! He appears in the pet gallery (right after the lizard), a feature of this channel which deals with cults. I live for cult stories, but it's appropriate to feature a "palate cleanser" after these toxic stories. 

Mr. Shiny Shell: TURTLE stretched out on log

See how little it takes to make me happy? A shiny-shelled turtle lazing on a log is all I need. I have recaptured the sense of wonder I knew as a child, when I would spend hours in nature and never get bored. I would have been enraptured with all the wildlife I am privileged to see now - just a few minutes'  drive away, and we're practically in the wilds of B. C. To have  a bird eat out of my hand - I never would have dreamed!

🔴An incredible Sight! BLOOD MOON seen through my bathroom window🔴

The first time the moon suddenly sprang into relief through the lens of my ancient camcorder, I nearly dropped it on the  ground. I was astonished at its power to capture all the detail and the eerie glow. I still can't quite believe I took these videos. 

🔴BLOOD MOON: the View through my Bathroom Window (Part 2: Jet Plane)🔴

I am always astonished at the powers of my little old camcorder from the 1980s. I've used it to death, but still it keeps on chugging. From the first time I picked it up, I could use it -  aim, focus and shoot. Nothing technical about it, but it can pull in the moon through the window, to  the point that you can see it in remarkable detail. The orangey-red glow came from forest fires. When the jet appeared like an apparition, I was even more astonished. You  can even see its lights flash as it moves into the frame. It's just one of those moments.

😸Why does my cat bite his fur?😺

Watching Bentley groom is fascinating, because he doesn't just lick - he bites his fur, especially the fluffy, flossy tummy fur which he keeps so immaculately clean. This video got over 600 likes, whereas the ones I work and slave over might get 30. But it's cats, folks. 

😳What's that screaming in the back yard?

When you hear bloodcurdling screams from your back yard, you want to know the source. We've been hearing these screeching cat noises for months now, and though we can hear them (and so can the neighbors), no one can see them. Whatever they are. 

But on examining this video, I have a clue - the two placid-looking cats who wander along beside the back fence MIGHT be much more aggressive than they seem. I say this because after a bout of screeching on the right side of the yard, the tabby wandered out, arched its back for a minute, then continued to wander along looking fairly calm. But after that, the black-and-white guy did the same thing. 

THEN, after a few minutes, another bout of screeching broke out - on the LEFT side of the yard this time, where both those cats would be by now. So do they hate each other? Are they mortal enemies and facing off in ungodly feline screams? I hear no actual fighting (and when two cats fight, it's the ugliest cacophany of feral snarls and growls you ever heard), but a lot of the kind of moaning that two tom cats do when facing off. 

So at this point, though it seems highly unlikely, I have no other suspects in the neighborhood except these two local cats who very often stroll through the yard. But never at the same time. The black-and-white now wears a harness which appears to have a GPS on it, so maybe he's prone to roaming, and (as a result) fighting. I always thought the tabby was a girl cat, but I can't be sure. ONE of them is aggressive, and the other won't back down. Or maybe it's some other cat entirely, but I am pretty sure by now it isn't a lynx or a bobcat. Though I DID have the number of the conservation office just in case. Now I'm kind of glad I didn't call, however. . . 

💥Woodcock CHA-CHA! Bird has the dance moves💥

The music and the animation co-ordinated beautifully in this one, though not quite on purpose. 

Anthony Perkins - Summertime Love

I cry when I hear this - no, not just a few tears but sobbing, full-on weeping, every single time, and just now when I heard it again. I am fascinated with Anthony Perkins and am once again making my way through a very difficult biography of him by Charles Winecoff. I say difficult because he really is presented warts and all, with an astounding degree of complexity and outright contradiction. He was so many things to so many people, some of them diametrically opposed, but all of it was real. Some of it was baffling and strange and even offputting, though he never violated his own integrity. So we have this fleeting, fragile two minutes in time from a musical everyone has forgotten. Greenwillow was a flop and only ran to near-empty houses for a few performances, and he had a cold when they did the original cast recording so there's a little catch in his voice on the high note at the end. He is speaking to us, just talking to us, telling us his soul, his complex and contradictory soul, in the simplest language you can imagine. Who can do that? No one else I can think of. Anyway, I haven't cried for a long time, not since those wretched dark deep nights of the pandemic when I thought the loneliness would never end. But this is different, and it's not like anything else I can even think of. I was sure it wouldn't affect me  this time - like every time - and within a few seconds I was sobbing.

Are these "trolls" worth $363.00? (What not to buy on eBay)

 

Vintage 1960's Monster Men Frankenstein & Wolfman Figures Nik Troll Dolls

Item Information

Condition:

UsedUsed

“EXCELLENT DISPLAYED PIECES”

Price:

US $249.99

ApproximatelyC $340.89

Best Offer:

Shipping:

US $16.41 (approx C $22.38) eBay International Shipping

Located in: Cleveland, Ohio, United States

This item may be subject to duties and taxes upon delivery

Delivery:

Estimated between Tue, 19 Sep and Fri, 29 Sep to V3B 5V3

Seller ships within 5 days after receiving cleared payment.

Payments:

    

Returns:

30 days return. Buyer pays for return shipping. 

😳Angry Canada Goose has a HISSY FIT!

This Canada goose was having a hissy fit. I've warned parents of small children not to run up to them, as they can begin to hiss, lower their head and "charge". The little teeth lining their beaks can give you a nasty bite. I've heard of people being killed by swans, and I can see it happening with these creatures. Like rats, like crows, like raccoons, they thrive everywhere and make a nuisance of themselves, ruining farmers' crops and making great piles of doglike do-do.

💥BLINK, BLINK! Classic Cars with ANIME Eyes! (handmade animation)💥

This is probably the best car animation I ever made, but it's getting miserable views. The thing is, I posted my second-best car animation a few days ago (Cars with Teeth!), and it got over 400 very fast. But I don't really understand how these do or do not get into the recommended stream, how the algorithm - the Mighty A - determines these things. I swore I would NOT get caught up in views, popularity, subscriber count, etc. - but the truth is, I have one video which has gotten 12 million views, a complete fluke because it's nearly identical to twelve other videos I made with exactly the same visuals, just different audio. And those got maybe 100 at best. I try to stay out of all that stuff, but the severe switchbacks can be hard on me. I find myself recycling stuff I posted years ago, but once in a while one of those comes up and it got maybe 17 views. Seventeen versus TWELVE MILLION???

💥Back Yard Bullies: SCREAMING Squirrel vs. FURIOUS Jay!💥

Such drama in the back yard! I had to take down all the feeders after the back yard bear kept crashing the place, but finally relented, and when I put everything back up, we were soon overrun with wildlife. I was delighted to see a Steller's jay after a very long absence - you hear them before they see them, as they screech and screech, then flap down and bob around for seeds. While they're among my favorite birds, they aren't very bright and can't seem to navigate to get up to the feeders, though they flap around looking ungainly while they attempt to hook on somewhere. In this video I happened to be outside with the camera when a small war broke out. The jay was screeching, and a squirrel was snarling back at him. It went back and forth for  a while, and must have been a territorial thing because the jay finally flew over to the tree where the squirrel was hunching and flapping its tail and swearing in squirrel. It ended in a draw in which the jay took off, but soon reappeared when the squirrel frisked off to another tree.

Burnt-out Bombsite: What Prince Harry did to his Family

JAN MOIR: Harry may be coming home, but there's a burnt out bombsite where his family used to be

By JAN MOIR FOR THE DAILY MAIL
UPDATED: 03:49 EDT, 25 August 2023s

Royal-watchers spotted a cloud of black smoke rising over assorted palaces and castles this week, part of a sad new ritual called the Bonfire of the Olive Branches. For when it comes to relations between the Royal Family and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, we're looking at a burnt-out bombsite where a family used to be.

Relations are at rock bottom, clemency is in the deep freeze. The outstretched hand has been withdrawn and the peace pipe has been doused with a thousand duchessy tears. It is over.

In September, Prince Harry will visit the UK to attend an awards ceremony for the WellChild charity on the day before the anniversary of the Queen's death. But there are no plans to meet his father or his brother. Apparently, he is not even going to the private family dinner at Windsor to remember Elizabeth II.

He then goes on to Germany for the Invictus Games, where his wife will fly out to join him.

The message from Meghan couldn't be clearer. She is never going to set foot in the grey, cake-filled, miserable UK again if she can possibly help it.

Perhaps being forbidden to attend the Queen's deathbed at Balmoral — to shed light, to empower, to recommend a turmeric cleanse and some yoga stretches to the woman she never knew as Gan-Gan — was the last straw. And if there is a role for her as wifely appeaser to help heal the rift between her husband and his family, she has chosen to avoid that, too. As is her right.

But there is a puzzling disconnect about all this bitter friction.

The Duke and Duchess keep embracing big themes such as reconciliation and family. They talk earnestly of healing, humanity and hope but, somehow, never apply these messages to themselves and their relationships with their families, which are as toxic as a giant hogweed swamp.

Consider that poor Thomas Markle, living alone in a dusty Mexican border city just 250 miles south of Montecito, has yet to meet his grandchildren. It also seems unlikely that King Charles will ever get a second chance to meet Lilibet, his granddaughter. And that is terribly sad.

I note that the Duchess accompanied the Duke to the WellChild Awards in 2018 and 2019 but is not attending this year. A shame, for it is a moving ceremony held to celebrate the achievements and resilience of children with severe illness and the families who look after them.

That first year, the Duchess was pregnant with her first child, Archie — it had yet to be announced to the public — and the Duke paid tribute to her on stage.

The following year, he broke down during his speech at the same event, saying: 'It pulls at my heartstrings in a way I could never have understood until I had a child of my own.'

He is so right. When it works properly, family is everything. Family is your home port, the wind beneath your wings. Family is more than name-napping your grandmother's nickname for your own child. Family is not a seized opportunity to build a business on a royal name and a heritage you like to denigrate when it suits.

Family is not an ermine-edged cloak under which you can indulge your narcissism disguised as altruism. Family is putting in the hard yards, apologising when you have gone wrong and loving each other despite it all. Dare I even mention the word respect?

It has been seven years since Harry met Meghan. It is five years since they married, three years since they stepped down as royals, two years since their infamous interview with Oprah, one year since the Queen died.

In this time, Harry has cratered his existence as he knew it and lost the only father and brother he will ever know. In elevating his and Meghan's joint status and virtue by ruthlessly tearing down the legacy and reputation of the Windsors, he has reached this bleak point of no return.

Prince Harry is coming home, but there is nowhere for him to go. His involvement in the Invictus Games and charities such as WellChild is the very best of him. But surely the day will soon dawn when he comes to regret losing what he says he prizes the most: his family.

💥ZOOM-ZOOM! Classic Car Cruise in Port Coquitlam!💥

This year it was hair-raising, and now we're wondering whether we want to do it again. Not only was the air acrid with forest fire smoke (which made the sun glow red, and was so thickly obscured you could shoot right into it), but we had to endure dense vapors of exhaust, the stench of burnt rubber on the road, and a near-fatal screech-around wherein a driver nearly lost control and killed us all. One guy's engine caught fire and brought the whole thing to a screeching halt, but I was so astonished I didn't even get a shot of it. But you can hear me talking anxiously to the lady next to me about what the HELLLL was going on. Though we've done the car show for years, I think it's just about the end of it for us. It's the same cars every year, and since we've been doing this since 2015 - . Well. In this case, we're lucky to have survived intact, and avoided choking to death on exhaust fumes, burnt rubber, engine smoke and forest fire haze. 

💥CARS with TEETH! (handmade animation)💥

One of my favorite handmade animations. Love the music, too. 

🙄SILLY CAT! He's Scared of the Garage (so why does he want to go in ther...

Because Bentley. 

The '62 Lark!

 

The '62 Lark! I remember this commercial vividly, and have been trying to find it for years. Here it is, in pristine condition, probably better than when I saw it in 1962 when I was eight. Why would I remember such a thing? Swings.

Beautiful blonde bus driver

My beautiful blonde ace-reporter daughter Shannon Paterson gets to drive a bus! I think she preferred another story where she got to drive a Lamborghini.

Bentley was SUCH a good boi!

 

Our beloved Bentley was SUCH a good boi at the vet's today! It was completely different from all his other experiences, where he'd be terrified and would meow pitifully through the whole examination. Our old clinic closed permanently, perhaps because the facilities were just too primitive by today's standards (one big loud dog-smelling waiting area with barks, howls, jumping around, etc. while Bentley, who has an exquisite sense of smell, would cower in the back of his carrier).

Well, that clinic was closed, so I began to look around for something else close by (he hates those car rides!). I found a local clinic, newly-built, that literally has TWO clinics: one for cats and one for dogs. The cat clinic even has a separate entrance! I noticed Bentley stopped his pitiful meowing when we came in, and even came out of the carrier without trauma. He sniffed around and got used to the place while the vet took his history from  us. She was lovely, obviously loved cats, felt him all over and told us what we had so hoped to hear - at nine years old, he's pretty much in perfect health. He has even lost a little weight from his very large frame. 

Best of all was the way the clinic understood cats and their particular needs, their hypersensitivity and how they can be intimidated by larger, louder, smellier animals. Bentley was attacked and ripped up quite badly by a dog before we adopted him, so naturally his fears are even greater. But it all went so smoothly, it only cost $100.00, and I have no qualms about taking him back there if, God forbid, anything happens with his health

He was SUCH a good boi! Even better, when we got home he actually crawled back into his carrier and loafed for a while. Now THAT is a first. 

💗🌞My Big Fat Brown Duck has NINE BABIES!🌞💗

I've been following this duck for months now, and it always stood out from the flock due to its immense size and gorgeous chocolate-brown colour. Then it disappeared for quite a while, only to resurface with NINE baby ducklings! This was unlike any brood I'd ever seen before, because they were several different colours, from mottled-brown to dark brown with a yellow breast, to solid yellow. This tends to say they're hybrids, meaning My Big Fat Brown Duck must have mated with a mallard drake. I want to follow the development of this brood, from newly-hatched (these guys were likely only a week or so old) to maturity. This was one of the more magical finds on the shores of Lake LaFarge, which we've nicknamed The Duck Park. I believe this duck is a khaki Campbell, a large, meaty breed raised for human consumption. Our duck got out of there just in time to avoid being on someone's dinner plate.

Popcat sings Rasputin (Full song)

Where has this song been all my life? It combines my three greatest passions: disco, Rasputin and cats! All of Russian history in a mere 3 minutes. With cats!

🌸Pressed Flowers Found in 46-year-old Book!🌺

This was an absolutely magical experience. When I opened a copy of The Thorn Birds that I'd bought on Amazon for a couple of bucks, I found pressed flowers from someone's garden, don't know where, don't know when. They were so well-preserved I could still see the colors in the blossoms. I put them between two panes of glass in a frame, but rediscovered them years later and reframed them with a background, which displays them much more clearly. It's one of those mysteries that could only come about through the internet.

Harry and Meghan. . . don't tell me they're splitting up!

  

JAN MOIR: I’m relieved Harry and Meghan’s carousel of caressing has halted. But it does make me fear for them…

By Jan Moir for the Daily Mail

Updated: 16:02 EDT, 3 August 2023

Can all be well down in the fragrant dell of Montecito? I wonder. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have made their first public appearance together in months, no doubt hoping to silence increasing speculation about the state of their marriage, their future together and their mutual career as saviours of the world — or whatever it is that they do out there in their fantasyland of compassion and creative activations.

The couple were filmed sitting together on a love seat in the sun-dappled garden of their Californian home as they made congratulatory phone calls to the winners of a grant for young entrepreneurs developing 'responsibly technology'. If this show of togetherness was supposed to quash rumours, it had the opposite effect on me.

Was it wrong to sense an underlying tension and a lack of interaction between the duke and duchess? It was certainly noticeable that the couple didn’t look at each other at all. Well, Harry gazed at Meghan, but she kept her eyes down and never looked at him, not once. At no point did their eyes meet, and no affectionate gazes were exchanged.

Some might think this is a loaded observation about what is only a brief promotional clip, but this is Harry and Meghan we are talking about. Since day one, their every public appearance has been characterised by a glutinous show of overt affection. They hold hands, they constantly pat, touch, clutch and comfort–rub each other like two high-net-worth meerkats enjoying a grooming session.

They delight in showing the world their delight in each other, even if that delight is not always entirely reciprocated in a wholly delightful way.

And whether on Oprah or on a palace balcony, their eye contact is invariably intense and locked on, like radar gunsights. Indeed, Meghan often makes a point of gazing at Harry with the kind of molten adoration you’d expect from a renaissance nun who has just seen a vision of God in a stained-glass window.

But not this time, baby. In their tonal summer neutrals and fixed grins, there was a faint undertow of awkwardness and distance that we haven’t seen before.

I want to be honest. I’m rather grateful for any new briskness in their public relationship. There have been too many moments in the past when Harry and Meghan’s adolescent pawings and moony spoony behaviour has made even an old romantic like me feel the urge to purge into the nearest sick bag. Even if one can appreciate how these relentless, open displays of tenderness had a purpose and were powerful in establishing the Sussex identity on a global stage.

After all, Harry and Meghan built their brand on love; on being the heroic, loved–up couple who fled from the oppression of wealth, privilege and monarchy to build a brave new world built on the very same wealth, privilege and monarchy they had crossed an ocean to escape. And if the course of their true love does not run smooth, where does that leave them?

Tomorrow is Meghan’s 42nd birthday, and I wonder what she will be reflecting upon as she blows out her candles in California. Perhaps she will exult in her triumphant exit from a cruel and wicked British institution which forced her to wear beige, denied her first choice of tiara and wasn’t keen on hugs, the utter b****rds.

Perhaps her mind will turn once more to that momentous New York night in May, when the infamous ‘near-catastrophic car chase’ resulted in an utterly catastrophic negative shift in public perception of the Sussexes.

Overnight they went from being seen as compassion crusaders to deluded fools, mockingly exposed as a couple overinvested in their own importance and whirling around inside a tornado of unjustifiable paranoia. It was a seminal moment which resulted in more bad publicity, including cancelled broadcasting projects and being called ‘grifters’ by a Spotify executive.

Strong marriages can survive worse, but it is becoming clear that the pressure is on for the Sussexes, who have squandered much of their initial commercial goodwill in Hollywood and somehow managed to diminish their own prestige to boot.

The popular narrative about their relationship has always depicted Harry as the poor husband, forced to obey the demands of his ambitious wife — but being married to a privacy–obsessed monomaniac like him is surely no picnic, either. On that fateful night in New York, stuck in the back of a taxi in her pretty gold dress, Meghan’s duchess life didn’t look like much fun at all.

Of course, maybe all this speculation is wrong-headed and unfair. Maybe too much is being made of a short film clip that is supposed to be a celebration of good works. Yet after seven years of behaving like two handsy old hams overacting in a royal romcom set in a petting farm, Harry and Meghan can’t blame puzzled viewers for fearing the worst when the carousel of caressing suddenly stops.