Why 911 Wildlife Is So Amazing, Relocating Racoons, and Other Interesting Info

The raccoons Bonnie deals with are almost exclusively orphaned, usually by efforts to remove the mother from someone's house or backyard. This is, in fact, one example of a reason live-trapping can be inhumane. Most people can't tell if a raccoon (or squirrel, opossum or skunk) is a lactating mother, and taking her to another location could mean leaving her babies to fend for themselves.

Crowded Creatures has the scoop. Take a look around the other posts at this new blog to find out why coyotes probably didn't eat someone's dog and tips about what to do in event of a dog fight.

Yes, this is written by our very own Hannah whose two dogs have swelled our dog population to "pack" status. Check it out.

Reviewing "The Art of Eating In"

Cathy Erway needed an interesting subject for the food blog she was considering beginning. She decided to give up eating out, though that would be difficult for a young twenty-something in New York City, and begin cooking her meals at home. What began as an interesting experiment became something of an obsession. As Cathy's blog, Not Eating Out In New York, grew in popularity, she threw herself into the project with an increasing passion that lasted two years.

My review is at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Mubarak Out, Anchoress Cites Marian Connection

Just this morning I was looking at the front page photo on the Wall Street Journal of that stubborn, stubborn man and saying, "What does it take for him to get a clue?"

Evidently he got it and got out.

The Anchoress realized that today is the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes and has a list of other historic events that have occurred on Marian feast days. An interesting list to look over ... check it out.

Steven Riddle's Review of The Reapers Are The Angels

Think James Lee Burke filtered through Cormac McCarthy's The Road with zombies.  Boy, that really wasn't very helpful was it.  Let me try another pair of words: unexpectedly lovely.

Such is my respect for Steven that I'm not sure what made me happier, reading that he liked the book or his opening paragraph about our compatibility as reading partners. I feel super smart now.

As you know, I can also strongly recommend the audio version. It is amazing.

Google Salutes Edison's 164th Birthday

Google celebrates Edison's birthday with a wonderful animated gif in which gears turn and the light illuminates. Go check it out.

I know a bit too much about Edison's shameless self promotion, shameless to the point where others were done down to achieve it, to celebrate him as wholeheartedly as I could. His behavior during the AC/DC war, his treatment of Nikola Tesla, his behavior toward Georges Méliès, and his film licensing monopoly which is why the motion picture industry moved to California are just a few examples. However, there is no denying the fact that he is an American icon.

The Google tribute is truly striking, no matter who inspired it.

Blogging Around: A Few Interesting Things

• A blog I like is Riparians at the Gate where Jennifer Fitz blogs about catechesis, books, prayer, economics (an interesting continuing series) and occasionally points out an interesting blog that I want to read too ... which is what made me mention her to you.
  
  
• Thomas L. McDonald at State of Play tells the origin of tarot cards and shows some delightful images of French tarot.

  Tarot cards were not created for "divination," but to play games. Some people dispute this, claiming that the trump cards of a tarot deck (called the "Major Arcana") can be traced back to Jewish Cabbalism or ancient Egyptian mysticism.
  
  This is the worst kind of pseudo-history, and yet another example of new agers inventing ancient "sources" for modern practices in order to give them a patina of credibility. There is no evidence at all that the Trumps were adapted for fortune-telling purposes before the 18th century, while the cards themselves date back at least several hundred years earlier. Any person or source that claims otherwise is just making things up.

  
  
• Is Whispering Harmful to Your Voice? Doesn't everyone know that it is? The NY Times' "Really" column looks closer. Because it isn't that simple. Naturally.
  
  
• 5 Complaints About Modern Life That Are Statistically B.S. from Cracked.com. Things that everybody knows like "everything is so expensive" and "people are getting stupider" ain't necessarily so. Keeping in mind that this is from Cracked.com, don't be surprised at a certain amount of bad language flung about for emphasis. That said, their articles make me laugh and teach me at the same time. Rose gets the credit for pointing me to their articles.
  
  
• Another blog I like, Strange Herring, is a new one to me. (Can't remember where I saw it linked originally.) Lots of links and some interesting short stories about subjects such as why SlingBlade is the most explicitly Christian movie ever made or "Italians We Like: Steve Buscemi." And gems such as this:

  Medieval Italian Manuscript Feeds Entire Colony. Safeway Stocks Up on Dante, Ariosto.
  
  So this book, written in 1293, started to decay, as really old things tend to do. But it was decaying in a manner that caught the eye of microbiologists. Turns out it was home to “an entire ecosystem.”
  
  Now you know how the mainstream press will play this: “Vatican Library Withholds Food for Millions. Pope Blasted.”

Stephen Sommers to Direct "Odd Thomas." NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

We remember Stephen Sommers don't we?

He began his career with The Mummy which was quite enjoyable and has slid steadily downhill ever since, winding up with a bump at G.I. Joe.

The guy whose personal quote is "Don't let them tell you less is more. More is more."

The director who Industrial Light & Magic created their own personal CGI demands scale for.

He'll be directing a movie about one of my favorite fictional characters of all time. And not only that ...

Looks like Stephen Sommers wrote the script himself, and is producing it as well.

/Film

This news just gets better and better, right?

(Thanks to Rose for the tip on this one.)

Google Salutes Jules Verne's 183rd Birthday

Seriously, you have to go check this out.

It is the best of ingenious art used as homage. When you move the lever the image seen through the sub windows moves. If you don't move the lever, you are floating on the waves, so naturally the image bobs because the sub would be bobbing.

When Beowulf Knits Socks ...

It might look like this.

I especially like this since I am fighting off the urge to buy a book (darn that book fast) called What Would Madame Defarge Knit? (Edited by Heather Ordover at CraftLit with many original patterns based on classic books).

Thanks to Theocoid for this, who got the link from Mark Shea.

When Superheroes Play Poker

This is funny.

I laughed out loud. At work.

You have to like superheroes. And not mind a bad word.

Thanks to Rose for this one.

iPhone App Aids in Confession and Carries Imprimatur (corrected)

A new app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch has been “developed for those who frequent the sacrament and those who wish to return” in what is the first known imprimatur to be given for an iPhone or iPad app.

I'm sure that I am late in noticing this, but a pal sent me the link, asking what I thought about it. I thought I'd post this as it is how I let Tom know about interesting Catholic news.

It actually just looks like another way to organize your thoughts more than anything.

I, myself, resist cell phones, apps, and all that. That's just a personal thing. I have so many gadgets. So I use note cards. They are easy to stack and don't need batteries.

This app looks no worse than having a printed out examination of conscience, and prompts to get through confession (which I have handwritten on a note card).

Though I do NOT write down a list of sins ... they are burned onto my mind until I talk to the priest! (So much safer that way.)

CORRECTION
The original headline said this carries a Vatican imprimatur and I had clicked around and found numerous stories from reputable sources which said that very thing. However, it turns out that they didn't really check their sources any further than I did. There is an imprimatur but it was bestowed by an American, Bishop Kevin Rhoades of Fort Wayne-South Bend.

The place to get the real story as well as see all the ways the story was misrepresented in the news it at the always-valuable Get Religion.

In other news ... Kif and Wash got into a serious, no-holds barred fight for supremacy

This was last Friday when Hannah and I went in the back yard to frolic in the 5" snowfall with the dogs.

Playing, which always has an edge of hierarchy for dogs, turned in the blink of an eye into fighting between Wash (the Boxer) and Kif (part Staffordshire Terrier). Wash won, but that was only because Hannah hit Kif over the head with a plastic lawn chair to make him stop. She wielded it like a Valkyrie, doing this mother's heart proud, especially as I was racking my brain to think of how we could shock Kif enough to get him to stop.

Otherwise, I shudder to think what might have happened. I had Wash's collar but he kept on fighting and with Kif underneath no one could get a hand inbetween them to grab Kif's collar.

Hannah grabbed Kif and moved him across the yard.

Zoe and Zapp had been bouncing excitedly around the edges (mentally chanting, "fight, fight, fight!"). They had no doubt who "won" and immediately ran after Kif and attacked him. Luckily, they weren't as passionate and I was able to call them off with voice alone, because I couldn't let go of Wash.

Wash had multiple puncture wounds to both legs with a few bad enough to need stapling.

Kif had to have his ear sewn up in a couple of spots so the honors were about even.

The next day, we were filled with trepidation about how to have these two dogs in the same household. However, we followed the Barkbuster's lady's advice. We reintroduced them to each other in the yard where the fight broke out, with a hose ready and waiting in case of renewed trouble. But both dogs knew that Kif had disengaged first. Neither cared it was because of a lawn chair and both felt Wash had won.

So, unbelievably to me, we are now back to where we began.

Except that it seemed to clear the air in some way that we humans couldn't really see.

Wash has a new bounce in his step and a take-charge manner in the pack proper. Questions about chew bones get settled by him, he gives a sharper reprimand when the others try to push him around and he is first up for guard duties.

Kif, surprisingly, has gotten braver around me and now will look me in the eye. Crazy. But it is as if he now knows just where he belongs and feels more secure. Hannah thinks it is because in Wash he sees a strong leader.

Who knows?

Whatever the reason, we have peace and it seems to have done both dogs some mental good. It is just too bad about the wear and tear on our mental good. Not to mention the vet bills!

Gulliver's Travels, the Catholic Church, and the Meaning of Life

You never know just where the conversation is going to go when you participate in an SFFaudio podcast.

Jesse Willis (SFFaudio host), Gregg Margarite, and I all read Gulliver's Travels and then discussed it yesterday. This is a longish podcast at almost two hours, however, readers of this blog may find the discussion extra interesting since it eventually ranged all over the place with the last hour popping in and out of faith discussions.

It was a fascinating discussion to participate in and a truly wonderful example of Socratic learning (for me anyway) with a couple of folks who are willing to pursue learning wherever they find it.

Click through and have a listen.

Keeping on Track with St. Teresa: reviewing "a little daily wisdom"

St. Teresa of Avila is not a lofty, inaccessible saint; she’s a companion, and has been taking Christians on a journey through their own interior “castles” for hundreds of years. Honest, humorous, and insightful, her devotional and spiritual reflections show readers how to open up themselves to God in new ways.

This little book from Paraclete Press is true treasure. The daily quotes from St. Teresa may be tender or pithy, patient or sharp, but they have so far had something I needed to hear practically every day. Partially this is because of Bernard Bangley's accessible translations which capture Teresa's sparkling, vivid personality in naturally flowing language. Partially, though, it is because St. Teresa herself has a gift for communicating the important things we need to remember in striving to grow in our love for God.

What Teresa knew, and what Bangley has excerpted so well, is that we are easily distracted and must always be brought back to focus on the important things. Those things usually seem extremely simple when we are reading about them but are difficult to remember in the flow of everyday life. That is why it is good to have these brief excerpts to read every day so that we may ponder them and keep ourselves on the right path.

I was so impressed with this book after looking through it that I began using it every morning before prayer. It has proven very helpful and oftentimes I find Teresa's advice comes into my mind throughout the day. I have come across several entries that speak to me particularly and I will share them throughout this week in the daily quotes. Highly recommended.

First Friday Fast for an End to Abortion: February

Here's the background info and I see that I've been doing this since February 2007 which makes this my 4 year anniversary of this practice.

I had been slackening up in the last couple of months but the March for Life, as always, reminded me of just how urgent all our actions are on behalf of the unborn. There is nothing like that community, the solidarity, the common action of the body of Christ who works to save those among us who have no voices to cry out.

If you're not already fully involved in working toward this goal, I invite you to join me in a monthly day of sacrificial fasting and prayer for the unborn, the mothers and fathers who are tempted to make the mistake of abortion, those who work to end abortion and for the souls of those who have been so lied to that they work for abortion.

Reconciling the Reality of Hell and a God Who is Love

The Curt Jester calls our attention to an article called Debunking the Myth of Hell which has this basic premise.

I’m writing about hell because it is an unthinkable, horrible, destructive concept that can’t possibly be true.

My own personal comment about that is there are many people just don't have much imagination. This author seems to be one. God is so far outside our range of what could "possibly be true" that believing in anything else that goes along with Him should be a piece of cake. People who say that sort of thing just aren't trying hard enough. Or even looking into it much. More correctly, the statement should say, "I don't want to believe in it."
The first time I encountered the concept was from a high school English teacher and it affected me not at all since I cared nothing for God or Hell at the time other than to be surprised that someone would rather disappear ... that teacher's favored imagining of the punishment for not doing what one should ... than to just, well, go ahead and do what one should. She was kind of a ditzy hippy and we all knew it and that also took away all emphasis from what she was trying to "teach" that day, for me at any rate.

Anyway, The Curt Jester has his own comments which I liked very much and pithily sums up with the kicker which really sums up the concept which we should remember when faced with this statement from others.

She ends the article with the statement “God is Love.” So to reverse her question “Can a loving God force someone to Heaven who doesn’t want to be with him?

Streets as Icy as Skating Rinks Continue in Dallas

Just thought I'd catch everyone up on the weather. So it is day 3 of the big ice-in, with below freezing temperatures and a city system that is just not prepared for this sort of thing.

The mail still gets delivered (love you, U.S. Postal System!), the power is on though I have heard of some neighborhoods where they are having "rolling black outs" to help conserve power, and although we didn't have newspaper delivery yesterday, today we found two WSJs on our doorstep (yesterday's and today's).

Tom has gone to work all three days because ... I'll just say it ... he's a warrior. (Also, when you have a small business you wind up being like a farmer. No one else is going to feed those cows, right? And our clients may be unable to leave their homes but they still are asking for work to be done ... as well as the fact that we have many clients who aren't in Dallas and are asking for jobs.) I went to work on day one and then after having a series of small heart attacks over the driving conditions he drove me home at the end of the day. Because he's just that great ... yes he is!

Hannah went to work on days 1 and 2 and was one of the few people able to show up at work at the vet (where half her working days are spent as an assistant vet tech). Good thing she did because they have 18 dogs boarding and most of the people who work there live a good distance away and couldn't make it in. She showed up at 7 a.m. on the second day because she figured the 7 a.m. shift for dog walking and feeding wouldn't be there. She was right. What a good girl ... I am so proud of her for driving over icy roads to make sure the dogs were taken care of and walked.

Our own dogs are in heaven because people have been around so much of the time and they haven't had to be in their crates during the day.

Although ... we are beginning to run out of dinner-type food. We can eat sandwiches for some time but I will be venturing out to go to the store sometime soon so we can restock other sorts of supplies.

There must be more but that's all I can think of for now!

January Book Report - Part 2

Continuing the discussion of books I read in January, I see that I could also have called this the Diana Wynne Jones report. I did read quite a few of her books all at once and was entranced by this "new" author.

• Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
  I loved the movie and a friend who had been telling me how superior the book is was kind enough to lend it to me. I began glancing through it and found myself pulled in by the humorous beginning. It was written with a bit of self awareness but not so much that it ever took over the story. The story is complex and yet the author managed to keep it all clear as the story ramped up, extra characters appeared, and everyone came together at the end. (Although I was a bit confused about the two piecemeal characters until that was completely sorted out ... but perhaps that is as it should be.) Definitely better than the movie!
  
  I can't really describe the plot well except to say that Sophie's troubles all begin after an encounter with the Witch of the Waste which leaves her artificially aged to about 90. When Sophie goes out to find help she winds up at Howl's moving castle (which whirs through the countryside at an alarming pace). Those are the simplest elements but it is an entrancing book. Although Diana Wynne Jones writes for the juvenile/young adult audience her books are absorbing whatever one's age and this is one which I highly recommend.
  
  My friend then brought me several other of her family's favorite books by Jones and I enjoyed them all as you can see below.
  
  
• Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones
  The dogstar Sirius has been convicted of a crime and condemned to a mortal life, as a dog. He is being given a chance to find who actually committed the crime he is accused of. First, however, he must learn to navigate the world and life as a dog, beginning as a newborn puppy. This gives the author the opportunity to write about understanding the world from a canine point of view and later, as he meets some cats, from his interpretation of a feline POV as well. Sirius belongs to a gentle, nature loving girl who is much put upon by her aunt, upon whom she depends for everything.
  
  While the insights into canine understanding are well written, I was not very interested in that aspect. I was much more interested in Sirius' true nature and quest. That is understandable, however, as the book was written for juveniles and I am far past that point. That makes it all the more remarkable that this author still held  my interest in the story and characters.
  
  The last half of the book proved to pick up the pace and focus more on Sirus's attempts to achieve his goal rather than his life as a dog ... they were probably divided about evenly. I found it a most satisfying book to the point where I stayed up late to finish it.
  
  
• The Homeward Bounders by Diana Wynne Jones
  Following my reading of Dogsbody, I went on to this book in sampling Diana Wynne Jones' oeuvre. She came up with yet another completely different concept, unique world system, and set of problems to solve. As well, Jamie, the protagonist seems different from those I read about in Howl's Moving Castle and Dogsbody.
  
  Jamie has a happy enough life with his family in a poor but active neighborhood of a large city. One day, when delivering groceries for his father's store, he happens upon a building that seems unlike those he has encountered before. When looking through the windows, he sees Them (which is the only way that these persons are ever described). They seem to be playing a gigantic board game and the glimmers of overheard conversation are tantalizing. He escapes detection and seeming danger but can't resist coming back later to see more. This time They see him and turn Jamie into a discarded player in their game, where he is doomed to walk the boundaries between worlds, bouncing from one to the next in the hopes of being able to find his way back home. He is not the only discarded player and meets those somewhat familiar to us (the Wandering Jew, the Flying Dutchman) and those who definitely are not. Jamie's discoveries and struggles make for absorbing reading and a book that I couldn't put down.
  
  This is a juvenile fiction work but, aside from some plot points that are probably much more obvious to the adult reader than to the intended audience, there is enough here that one never really feels as if the book is written for a lower age group. Highly recommended.
  
  
• The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones
  For as long as he can remember Christopher could walk in his dreams through the Place Between to different valleys for visits to the different towns and people there. Sometimes, if he worked hard at it, he could even bring back some of the gifts they gave him. This led to his uncle noticing his abilities and setting a series of experiments for Christopher to do while in these worlds. As time goes by, we watch Christopher grow, go to school, and eventually discover what his true talent is and what it means to the world.
  
  I don't want to include spoilers so the above description sounds dreadfully boring and this book is anything but that. I stayed up late last night in order to finish the last thirty pages at break-neck speed. I finished and thought of the Harry Potter books, a comparison which hadn't occurred to me until that moment. I enjoyed the Harry Potter books very much, but felt that this was so much fresher and more original that I was surprised.
  
  Diana Wynne Jones has a talent for developing personalities as well as worlds and we feel that main characters have become our friends. When the Goddess expresses a heartfelt desire to go to school, we understand and want that for her too. When Christopher suddenly sees how the face he's been showing to the world is not what he thought, we feel his shock too. As with the other books I have read, the author is highly imaginative at developing new worlds and scenarios that do not seem at all derivative of any of the others that preceded it. I am curious to read more of this series to see how it is handled.
  
  
• Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
  This is a modernization and re-imagining of the ballad of Tam Lin, a young man stolen by fairies who must be rescued by his true love. My experience with Pamela Dean's attempt to do this to a story made me leery but I should have trusted Jones from the beginning. She uses her vivid imagination to create the story of a young girl, Polly, who encounters a grown man with whom she fashions home-grown heroic adventures. (The imagining of the giant in the supermarket is particularly humorous and effective as an illustrative event.)
  
  As Polly grows up, her life is punctuated with these imaginings as well as the man's regular gifts of books shipped from anywhere he happens to be on tour in his profession as symphonic cellist. Thus, not only do we get a wonderful story, but we see Jones's idea of what books are suitable for encouraging imagination in children. As I read many of these same books when I was growing up, this was a particularly enjoyable bit of detail. It is bit of detail that becomes very important later in the book, I might add. The entire story is set in the framework of Polly as a college student, realizing with shock that she had forgotten this entire segment of her life. Thus the story is at once ongoing and a series of flashbacks. Highly recommended.

The Rite Presents God As Santa Claus

Like many films that center on the presence of the devil, the ultimate point of this production is to use the existence of the devil as proof of the presence of God. Demons are presented in fantastic, freighting ways and seem to be all powerful. Non-belief is reduced in importance because of the great evil present, and the resulting fear-based faith allows God to vanquish His enemy. This may seem correct since it sets man over God, but in actuality man’s faith is not the controlling factor in his relationship with the Almighty. God does not need man nor does He require his faith in order to act on his behalf.

This type movie, therefore, I believe, distorts the purposes of the Lord into some spiritual warfare Santa Claus.

Scott Nehring from Good News Film Reviews not only points out the problematic moral underpinning to The Rite, but also correctly skewers those who indulge in wishful thinking while reviewing the film because they are so hopeful to have a "Christian" movie taken seriously by the mainstream.

Scott also points out the many flaws inherent in the storyline in case all you were looking for was a good flick. Wow, it seems as if they really got The Rite ... wrong. Go read it all.

Good Story #3: Black Cherry Blues

This time around, Julie and Scott discuss James Lee Burke's Black Cherry Blues. This gritty story won an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1990, and is third of Burke's Dave Robicheaux novels. The book is remarkable for its well-written prose and the emotional baggage carried by nearly every character. The setting is contemporary Louisiana and Montana.

Emotional baggage ... no kidding!

Plus there's a whole lotta confession goin' on. Not our confessions. But we talk about the sacrament,  mercy, forgiveness, and sleeping around. What can I say? It's a noir-ish story written by a Catholic author who ain't afraid to let it all hang out.

Join us at A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast for the whole thing.