23 May 2019

Nature Watching with The Alibug: Eastern Sceech Owl Hiding Out; Thirsty American Goldfinch; Spiders & Snakes!!!

Greetings, readers, it's time for another communion with Nature, compliments of The Alibug - Ms. Alisa J. Brown


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Today's special treat! ▶️🦉◀️
I posted on a bird page that I think my 'bird angel' is near...(that would be my mother! 🥰) After seeing the Red-headed Woodpecker (I'm still seeing it, too!!!) and being so delighted by it, I was walking down my driveway today just to see what I could see and I thought I saw EARS sticking out of a tree! They WERE ears! OWL ears!! I love owls and do not ever recall seeing one here in a nest cavity. But I did today!! 🤩

Eastern Screech Owl in a Knothole...



'WHOOO' Goes There?!'





Birds can 'lap' water, similar to dogs and cats! This male American Goldfinch has just snatched a drop from the water dripper, that's currently not quite 'dripping'!! (Need to fix that...not good for the well pump or water resources!) Birds LOVE fresh water, however, and if you have a birdbath or water dripper in your yard, you are very likely to see more birds!

This bird's parched! 


Snake coming down a trellis at the side of my porch about three feet from Steve! I had to point out there was a snake close enough that he could touch if he leaned forward! Reminded me of my mother saying, “If it had been a snake it would have bitten me!” Although a bit out of context since Steve wasn’t looking for a snake! But.....he SHOULD be especially since that little Copperhead nicked him last year!! 😳😁


*Ed.note: I would've screamed like a little girl & went running away at a fast pace! -MBM

It's getting pretty buggy out there! Now if the Yellow Jackets, Mosquitos, and Japanese Beetles will stay away, i'll be good! This is one of our most colorful spiders in Georgia... it's an Orchard Web Weaver. I look for them every year. And those shiny little eyes are looking at me!

Ed.note II: Nothing like walking through one of these as I did some years back; 'I screamed like a little girl & went running away at a fast pace' while frantically brushing & hitting myself. 


Multi-generational Newtonian & former WGFS radio host, Ms. Alisa loves the outdoors, birds, the arts, fine dining & great music. She's also got a thing for pirates... An absolutely wonderful woman, we're so glad to have her beautiful nature pics here at TPC. 




22 May 2019

[Ellis Millsaps] - The View From Porterdale: Let It Bleed

This is the view from my front porch. In particular, it is the view of our neighborhood gang’s territorial marker. I've written about this before. Other than the shoes, I've seen no sign of their existence. I mean we haven't had a decent drive by shooting since I've lived here. I'm beginning to think they're like Spanky and Our Gang or Kool & the Gang, or maybe I haven't seen them because they're all now in the chain gang.


I was sitting on my porch a few weeks ago when a kid on a bicycle pulls up. I guessed he was about seven years old.

“Hello,” he says.

“Hi.”

“How are you doing?”

“I'm doing well. How about you?”

“I'm pretty good.”

The conversation seems to be lagging so I say, "nice day to ride a bicycle,” for it is indeed a fine spring day.
“Yeah.”  Long pause. “I can ride my bicycle without training wheels.”
“I can do that too.”
Another long pause. “ Yeah, but you're an old man.”




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I get my television from YouTube TV.  Thirty five dollars a month and I can watch it anywhere.


Something that puzzles me is  that in the last month they have started pre-empting commercials. You'll see the start of the commercial, then you see a screen that says” You're watching MSNBC [ or whatever]  on YouTube TV, accompanied by innocuous porn movie music, i. e., music they don't have to buy the rights to.


This doesn't bother me-- I'd likely mute the commercials anyway-- but how can they get by with this? Advertisers paid money to produce this show. The show wouldn't exist without them. The deal is” we’ll make your show and in exchange you air our commercials.” How can YouTube present the show without the commercials? Yet they show some of them. How does this work? Someone explain this to me. Google doesn't seem to know...



This is the entrance to the Porterdale community garden, a wonderful Institution excellently managed by Candace Hassen, who also designs beautiful quilts.



Here is my plot. The things with the alligator looking leaves are the artichoke plants I started from seed indoors in February. I'm hoping for 30 or so artichokes in late summer.

These are shots of Porterdale in the spring.



I seem to have made it to another one. As WC Fields said,” If I had known I was going to live this long I would have taken better care of myself.”



Should I get around to executing a living will before I in fact need it, my first dictate on when the doc should pull the plug is when I am no longer able to control hair growing out of my ears.


Here is the array at the Porterdale Bar and Grill where I do some of my writing. Such a lovely sight, and speaking of lovely sights,

Here are my PB&G girlfriends, El and Tina.




*******

I've always wondered what MLB does with all those baseballs which are thrown out when they hit the ground. My friend TJ Alexander used to maintain that they clean them off and put them  back in the game. That would defeat the whole point of this wasteful practice which is that the pitcher should not be able to throw a scuffed baseball which could increase movement on his pitches. If he were caught scuffing the ball himself-- and it has been done. Sandpaper hidden in the glove-- he would be a ejected, fined and suspended.


I always figured they sent them to the minor leagues. Turns out I too am wrong. I've written about how emphasis on launch angle has led to a record-breaking number of home runs in the past two years. and maybe they juiced the baseball. No way of knowing.

Well it turns out we do have a way of knowing, and they have juiced the ball. I recently heard on ESPN that this year for the first time the baseball hierarchy is using the major league ball at the Triple-A level. The number of home runs there has doubled.





Summary of the Newton Co. BOC General Meeting from 5/21/19

* a special thanks to Ms. Jackie Smith, Clerk of the Newton Co. BOC , for the wonderful job she does including getting these summaries out in a very timely manner. Thank you, Ms. Jackie. - MB McCart, Ed.


NEWTON COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
1124 Clark Street
Covington, Georgia
Regular Meeting
Agenda Summary
May 21, 2019

Newton Co. BOC Contact Info


Thought for the day…


The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
        Gandhi  


7:00 p.m. 1. Call to Order: Chairman Marcello Banes
2. Invocation: Pastor Mike Franklin, Solid Rock Baptist Church


                       3. Pledge of Allegiance:  Commissioner Demond Mason


4. Agenda Adoption
Approved 5/0 with changes.
  • Removed Item #11 and item #13


                        5. Citizen Comments
6. Chairman’s Report
  • Robert Foxworth
  • Coach Rick Rasmussen
  • Ralph Staffins
  • JDA Update


7. County Manager’s Report:
H/O Miscellaneous Reports
4-5
8. Old Business:
BOC: Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP)
(Budget Amendment Request tabled till May 21st.)
Denied budget amendment request, but approved moving forward with RFP for Professional Services Consultant.
4/0/1 (Abstention: Commissioner Henderson)
Preferred two motions instead of combining motion into one.

21 May 2019

[Perrin Lovett] - Special Guest Column on National Affairs

Your C.F. Floyd Writer of National Affairs took a few days off, necessary for his travels to Nebraska and the inaugural “Fuel Truck Solution to Political Problems” conference and chemistry lab. The author of today’s article is none other than that internationally-renowned observer and prognosticator of societal critique, dashing darling of the behance fashionables, Mr. Honk Honkler.*

*****

Greetings, friends of the inglorious Alabama lowcountry. As an impertinence, I once visited Dothan. A fine town, if that’s what you’re still calling it. My name is Honk Honkler and I am honored to fill this nugatory role for your reading rancor. I’m a really big fan of The Fremont Prodigals. For the opportunity, many thanks to Mr. N.D. MaLart and Perret Lobell, good friends whom I have known since last Thursday. My “regular” job, you didn’t ask? I play the role of Virgil, guiding those whom I may through the inferno of Clownworld. Come along, now, our journey begins. *Honk, Honk*

It Almost Always Starts with a Ship

These wars for money, that is. Think about it (if that’s possible). The Star of the West. The U.S.S. Maine. The Lusitania, U.S.S. Arizona, The Maddox. U.S.S. Liberty (Oops! DO NOT think about that one!). U.S.S. Stark. Et cetera. Et cetera. Now, today, thanks to John “It’s okay to lie about war” Bolton, the current et cetera is the U.S.S. Abe Lincoln, CVN-72.

As part of routine commercial banking enrichment operations, the 100,000-ton floating target has navigated to the Persian Gulf and into the sights of Russian, Chinese, and/or Iranian ASMs. The neocons aren’t even bothering to disclose the underlying lie this time. Whatever it is, rest assured it’s important - something about the free world or your children or protecting our nebulous interests or allies. Iran is a threat to something or someone, somewhere. Hezbollah. Uranium. Cakewalk. Ilhan Omar. For sure, no Amerikan sons or daughters will be imperiled by the Imperial imperative.

*Honk, Honk*

(Picture from the office of H. Honkler).

From Border Security to Boarder Security

In 2016, out of respect for and in celebration of the virtues of voluntary democratic slavery, the wise people of toponymic Columbia elected Donald “Art of Grab ‘Em by You’re Fired” Trump as Supreme Leader. Part of his pitch - the primary overhand lob - was securing America’s porous border with the Estados Unidos Mexicanos. He said something about a wall or bollards or some traffic cones. Someone was going to pay for it.

Someone is paying, alright. Someone like you. Not for a wall, nor even a short, rusty fence. Rather than halting the flow, as part of his one-year, wait and see, do nothing "State of Emergency," Trump accedes to roughly 1 million illegal entries each and every day. And, rather than have them all bunch up at the border, he’s decided to ship the new Amerikans here and yon to towns precariously close to wherever you live. You’ll get the bill for the room and board and much more. Please note, this is ONLY until the “asylum” claims are heard by a competent court of law. (Wink, Wink). Look for the hearings to happen about the same time that the truth about Iran falls out of Bolton’s mustache.

*Honk, Honk*

Mindlessly Drifting “Opposition”

America has two totally different and independent political parties. Honest injun - dot or feather, it doesn't matter anymore. The Democrats, led by Nancy Pelosi or AOC or “Friendly Hands” Biden or somebody, are going to fix everything just as soon as they figure out what planet they’re on and what century it is.

Russian collusion was real. Just look at the Uranium One … nevermind. But, it’s important to impeach Barr, maybe Mueller, if you’re going to subpoena Trump’s tax something or another. Big doins’ on Capitol Hill! Anything to distract public attention (if any) from the $5 Trillion Washington now wastes EACH YEAR! telling lies about the Middle East, moving 7 billion incompatible foreigners into the GDP, and propping up Propaganda Broadcasting Services (PBS).

*Honk, Honk*

Arthur’s Teacher Tweaks Twink

Cartoon fans of all ages, especially those aged four to eight, rejoiced the other day to learn that Mr. Rugburn, beloved fictional Elwood Pity government school teacher, is, in fact, a homosexual. Following some of the most hateful bigotry ever displayed on children’s television - wherein Arthur and his friends assume, Nazi-style, that there’s something wrong with sibling incest - the show reverted to a so-2000s camp about their teacher “marrying” another anthropomorphic male critter.

A lower-wattage social media fan of one reporting “news” outlet, whilst celebrating the blasé wedding, wondered why Rugburn would bother inviting his young students to his wedding. Given the context and agenda, I’m surprised he didn’t invite them on the honeymoon.

*Honk, Honk*

No need to concern yourselves with anything I’ve written about here, today. Just take those special pills, sip some of that cheap, canned barley wine, and slip back into the daily coma of the telly tube.

*Honk, Honk*

*****

*Honk Honkler began making the memeable internet rounds last year, identifying and ridiculing the identifiably ridiculous. His sentiment and visage have appeared at such illustrious publications as The New York Times, InfoWars, The Mail, and “Da Chans,” along with countless inclusions with better red-pilled blogs and social media outlets. He makes his residence at his home. He was an ardent fan of Chateau Heartiste until … the demise. Shetland pony breeding is his inconvenient divertissement.