A mystery: 26

In “The Contest”, in the first act of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Sweeney matches skills and egos with Pirelli, with Beadle Bamford looking on, at barbering—and then (in the original Broadway production in 1979) in a second section, at dentistry (tooth pulling, no more no less). The tooth pulling section doesn’t appear in later productions. Why did Sondheim delete it? It serves to underscore what a louse Pirelli is, because he has to conscript a healthy Toby in order to have a patient to work on, and hence we have no sympathy for Pirelli when Sweeney offs him. It has one of my favorite Sondheim rhymes: saliva and drive-a you mad. And it’s not like Pirelli gets all that much stage time.

bcc: S.Clemens@gmail.com

Oh, this one is hilarious.

Attention: Customer,

This is to notify you that CHASE BANK has made all arrangement on how
to transfer your funds, but now our problem here is that one Mrs.
Cynthia Edward, came to informed us that you are DEAD, and before your
death as a result of COVID, you instructed her to come for the claim
of your funds in the tune of US2.Million
that was long abandoned in your name with CHASE BANK.

So here comes the big question…. This questions has been a BIG
PROBLEMS to the Board Directors CHASE BANK, not knowing whom to
TRANSFER YOUR FUNDS to, please just get back immediately, if real you
are Alive.

(:i) Did you authorize Mrs. Cynthia Edward to come for your claim?

(ii) Are you truly Dead OR Alive?

If (NO) you are hereby advice as a matter of urgency to reconfirm the
details of this message within 24hours, hence your funds shall be
wired into her account without any more delay.

Lastly, you are advice to reconfirm the details of this message and
get back immediately with these information’s
below..

1.Full name:………………………..
2.Direct telephone number:………………..
3.Address:………………………..
4.Your personal identification to enable us confirm you are not dead.
5.Current occupation and address.

This information’s above must be provided for reconfirmation to Enable
us make payment to you, hence, your funds will be remit/wire into her
account as already provide to this management.

I have to inform you that we have completed all issues of your payment
in our bank since on the 20th of May.

Apparently, your International Deposit Online Payment Account has been
opened successfully.

You will ACCESS your account and confirm your approved sum of (TWO
MILLION UNITED STATE DOLLARS) has been officially Credited into the
Account today. You are legally empowered Authorized to make effectual
transfers from the Account as you follow the guidelines below.

Your USD Online Account is READY FOR EASY TRANSFER DIRECT TO YOUR ACCOUNT.

Please follow the instructions in the confirmation of this payment
Issues in the bank telephone banking administration sheet below to
confirm your payment.
.
Stage 1: Dial (CHASE BANK) Telephone Banking Confirmation Account
System on [REDACTED]

then after the voice contact, enter your account Pass Code [REDACTED]

Stage 2: enter your Account Number which is [REDACTED]

Stage 3: enter your account Account Pin Code [REDACTED]

Stage 4: to make transfer press 4 enter your destination account
number, which is your personal bank account number, swift code/routing
number apparently[!?], your fund IF YOU ARE HAVING ANY ISSUES, BE ADVICE
TO CONTACT ME DIRECTLY ON MY EMAIL.

Your fund will be transferred immediately into your personal bank
account via our electronic wire transfer system once you have the
complete requirement.

Lastly, Do get back to us immediately the transfer take place to enable
us update our official record.

Kindly call me as soon as you receive this email. NOTE: THIS TRANSFER
HAS BEEN MADE FREE OF CHARGE, YOU ARE NOT REQUIRE TO PAY FOR IT.

Congratulation as we hope to do more successful business with you, Our
aim is to put smiles in all our customer face, if our service is very
ok with you[!?], please do let us know.

Yours faithfully,

WHAT I REQUIRE FROM YOU IF TRULY YOU ARE ALIVE, JUST MAIL ME AND SAY
TO ME ( I AM ALIVE )

If not you are at your own risk.

H.E Ronny Jumeau
Sychelles Ambassador.
CC: FEDERAL RESERVE BANK HEADQUARTERS,
WASHINGTON D.C.

I am oh so tempted to reply to this one. I would not want to be the cause of a BIG PROBLEMS to the Board Directors CHASE BANK.

At the park: 132

Report for last week (29 May):

We closed our regular work days on a less than positive note. We found a Black Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) in box #77, so the second clutch of 2+ eggs that was started there was predated. We finally got access to wonky box #84: a Wood Duck flushed, but we found only 4 non-viable eggs, and we cleaned them out. As for box #61, we did get a hatch, but only evidence of that 1 duckling fledged; I am writing this one up as partially predated.

However, the books are not completely closed for the season. Box #1 (the one leaning over in the new pool by the tower) has a second Wood Duck clutch of 10 eggs going. Estimating that incubation began on 21 May, then hatch is expected about 19 June. Kat will check that one as a one-off on a time-available basis.

With so many boxes in use, and one clear dump nest, it’s not surprising that we had more than our usual number of abandoned/failed nests. What is a little surprising is the level of predation by Black Ratsnakes: visual observations at 2 boxes, and indirect evidence at a third. I suspect that one or more snakes have found a way to slip past the predator cones, perhaps exploiting the gaps where the cone is attached. We may want to explore a means of sealing those gaps.

So that’s it for scheduled work days — thanks for all your help, and we’ll see you next year. I’ll prepare final reports after all the numbers come in.

Mason and Bailey: 4/At the park: 131

Back in the field with the scrappy little Mason & Bailey Club, and their first visit to Huntley Meadows Park! Almost perfect weather. The day was not too birdy (my scouting yesterday listed 25 species, many of them just heard), but we did get some looks at Wood Duck, Hooded Merganser, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Osprey. And one of the Red-shouldered Hawks was squawking.

Somewhat better luck with some of the other orders: Painted Turtle, Snapping Turtle, American Bullfrog, Green Frog, Common Whitetail (Plathemis lydia) (male and female), Ebony Jewelwing, and my lifer Northern Pearly-eye (Lethe anthedon). First blossoms of Swamp Rose (Rosa palustris). A fleabane that I’m calling Erigeron strigosus, in the parking lot while I was waiting for folks. Crushing several siliques of Sweet Cicely produced the desired sensory effect.

I packed too much information into this trip, we didn’t even find a beaverdam, and we ran over our time budget (again!), but my little crew kept going with me.

At the park: 130

Mixed blessings in this week’s report:

Wood Thrush singing in the parking lot, and was that a Little Blue Heron in the main wetland? Warm weather, some good results and some less so.

Boxes #6 and #67 finally hatched, having been overdue. Box #3 apparently only fledged one duckling. Boxes #1 and #77 have new Wood Duck eggs, having already fledged a clutch. On the not so good side, boxes #2 and #10 were abandoned, and we cleaned out those boxes.

So while we had clutches started in 15 of our 16 boxes, which is higher than usual, 4 were abandoned — also higher than usual. Plus the predation of box #13 by a Black Ratsnake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis). Perhaps it was the same animal that we saw at the box again on Sunday.

roof patchI put another patch on the knothole in the roof of box #67.

Down lower Barnyard Run, I found a big patch of Rattlesnakeweed (Hieracium venosum), and about four Fragile Forktails (Ischnura posita), a male and three females.

So we can shift over to spot-checking the remaining boxes with eggs (#77, #84, #1, #5, #61) on our next work day, on 29 May. I am on call for work that day, so I will have my phone charged up.

* * *

Thank you very much!

Where does it all go?

Golly, with all the TVs and computers and Norton subscriptions I’ve bought, it’s not surprising that I only have 234.89 USD left to buy Bitcoin.

Dear Member,

Thank You for choosing Paypal for placing your Order BITCOIN.

Your order has been successfully placed.

The Payment will be shown soon within next 5 to 10 hours on PAYPAL

PRODUCT INFORMATION

Memo Id : BFCR#3876BFT
Item Name : BITCOIN (BTC)

Order Placed Date : 4th May 2022
Receiving Date : Day After Place The Order.
Price
: 234.89 USD
Charge Mode : PAYPAL

If you Wish to Cancel then please feel free to contact our Billing Department as soon as Possible.

You can reach us on [REDACTED]

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paypal Billing Department

At the park: 129

Sunday’s report:

Many adventures today! We had four successful clutches hatch and fledge (boxes #77, #1, #60, and #68). (K: I just have “cleaned” in my notes for #77, so I take it that there were no unhatched eggs.) Box #4 turned out to be a failed dump nest, so we cleaned it out. Box #3 was in the process of hatching when Megan checked it!

And box #13 was predated by a Black Rat Snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis). PJ has a picture showing three distinct bulges in the snake’s body. This box had only 3 eggs back on 17 April, so it seems likely that the hen was not there to defend the incomplete clutch.

Box #60 is new, and it has the fine mesh screen for the ducklings’ exit. It’s already coming detached at the top.

New migrants and breeders heard and seen: Red-eyed Vireo (Vireo olivaceus), Common Yellowthroat (Geothlypis trichas), Great Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus), Lesser Yellowlegs (Tringa flavipes).

I checked some references: the layer of tissue lining the shell is best described as the chorioallantoic membrane (just in case you need that word for Scrabble).

* * *

We’ll work again on 15 May. Köszönöm!

At the park: 127

More surprises in this week’s report:

Lots of activity in the boxes and outside, but no new hatches. We have a new clutch started in box #10, and we found 1 in in box #5 that might be the start of a clutch. That brings the total of boxes with eggs to 15 out of 16 (9 Wood Duck, 6 Hooded Merganser), which is unusually high; but it’s not clear that box #13 will be incubated. We saw a group of 7 small Hooded Merganser ducklings and hen in the new pool by the tower, so that group must have come from a natural cavity.

Several boxes were due, or almost due, on Sunday, but did not hatch, so we will have a lot of boxes to check next time.

* * *

Our next work day will be Sunday, 1 May. Much thanks!

Some links: 89

At the park: 126

First report for April:

First hatch! Box #7 hatched out. Photographers reported ducklings leaving the box at about 8:30 Sunday morning; estimate was 14 ducklings. I revised some of the previous notes. Box #7 must have been the box that was already started on 27 February.

Meanwhile, box #6 continues to incubate, along with several others. Box #4 has turned into a dump nest, with 24 eggs. Let’s hope for the best.

I had planned to patch the roof of #67, but a drake was standing guard atop the box, so I will postpone maintenance work until this box hatches.

Does anyone have notes for box #13?

* * *

Danke schoen!