In like a Lion

The old adage "In like a lion, out like a lamb" is often used to describe the blustery days of March. The phrase apparently has its origins with the constellations Leo, the Lion, and Aries, the ram or lamb. It has to do with the relative positions of these constellations in the sky at the beginning and end of the month.

Leap Year

Due to the untidiness of our calendar keeping, we have to add a day every 4 years. So, we have an extra day this year to do something special. Leap Year also has been the traditional time that women can propose marriage. So keep your guard up if you don't want to get tagged out of the blue. And if you are a Tigger you have a license to do whatever it is Tiggers do.

Vulture Festival

As a bird afficiando I like all kinds of birds. I even took this picture of buzzards roosting over a graveyard. I though it kind of represented "overkill".















However the citizens of Wenonah, New Jersey carry bird loving to limits by hosting an annual East Coast Vulture Festival. This event does serve to accentuate the usefulness of this often perceived repulsive bird. And, I do think they are graceful when they are soaring on some of the early morning thermals.

I particularly like the festival's slogan - "Look Alive". This seems like good advice at a vulture festival. You certainly wouldn't want to practice the slogan of "Possum Lodge" on the Red Green Show which in pig latin is Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati (when all else fails, play dead).

Anyhow, to get you in the mood here is "Jim Six" with the Vulture Festival theme song - Look Alive.

Doomsday Seed Vault

The doomsday seed vault opened yesterday and reminded me again of Spring. The Vernal Equinox is only 3 weeks away, but you sure can't tell it by the weather - another half inch of snow last night and down in the teens this morning.

The seed vault is one of the few actions that I have seen our species take that has no perceived current or future profit. It is reassuring to see that there are some who are willing to spend time, money and energy toward a worthwhile future oriented objective.

Goats

I don't know much about goats, but when my neighbor got a fainting goat for Christmas, I started thinking about them. The video says they were one of the first domesticated animals, however the fainting goats seem more a novelty than anything functional.
This also brought back my childhood memories of the "Goatman".

He came through the small town where I lived when I was about 5 and 6 years old. Everybody would turn out to see the goatman. He was also a novelty and a sight and smell you would never forget.

Stuttering

Here's a video I thought should have been more popular. The tune is used in one of the Dentyne Ice commercials. What better way to expose it than on Hog Wallow switch #2.

Too many people

I preface most issues that we face today with what I consider to be an all pervasive problem - too many people. We are still breeding like rabbits, but we are no longer dying like flies. On top of the numbers are all kinds of hidden demographics that I won't even try to get into, but I will be bringing this topic up again and again.

Go with the flow

The recent ice storm did a lot of damage. But we all should be like the river birch here that just bends and goes with the flow. I usually have to try to prove how tough I am and get bruised, broken or otherwise injured in the process.