- “‘He was once somebody’s baby boy…'”: Critical appreciation of ten film performances by Gene Hackman.
- John D. Cook shares a graph of Voyager 2’s speed as it achieves Solar System escape velocity. “In a gravitational assist, the velocity of a spacecraft with respect to the planet doesn’t change, but the velocity relative to the sun changes greatly.”
- Increasingly Inconvenient MTA Service Advisories, by Tom Smyth.
Trains are being held due to an investigation at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn station. They’re trying to figure out how to pronounce “Schermerhorn.”
- What better name can we give to the realm of music that we call (ill-advisedly) “classical”? My girlfriend in college preferred the term “art music,” but I think that term is too limiting. I’ve also heard “Western concert hall music,” which is getting closer. Matthew Aucoin has some thoughts.
- I’m not a big fan of our commonwealth flag (just the seal slapped on a field of blue), but there’s one element that I’ll speak up for: Texas schools nix lesson over Virginia state flag’s exposed breast.
“I see her as an Amazon,” said Virginia Senate Clerk Susan Clarke Schaar, recalling how a little girl summed up the motto during a tour of the Capitol: “Take that, big boy.”
- Early 20th-century home economics researcher Inga Allison experimented with baking at high altitudes to achieve the perfect Fort Collins brownie.
- I found eighty cents in my sofa cushions, how’s that? Fyre Festival’s embattled founder is selling the brand: ‘It’s time to pass the torch’.
Author: David Gorsline
Green Ridge State Forest butterflies
Rick Borchelt led a field trip to Allegany County, Maryland, targeting early-flying elfins and azures. It was a great opportunity to see some new butterflies—Brown Elfin (Callophrys augustinus), Northern Azure (Celastrina lucia), and Silvery Blue (Glaucopsyche lygdamus)—as well as to meet some shale barren-specialist plants. I learned why I’m confused by Summer Azures (C. neglecta): they have two broods in this part of the country, the first of them flying earlier than Spring Azure (C. ladon). And we picked up some moths along the way, including azure-lookalike Bluish Spring Moth (Lomographa semiclarata) and Double-lined Gray (Cleora sublunaria) (several at the Oak Barrel Cafe).
Fun plants included Shale-barren Ragwort (Packera antennariafolia), Shale-barren Pussytoes (Antennaria virginica), and Moss-pink (Phlox subulata).
Waiting for Godot
This Irish/American production of Beckett’s cornerstone work splits the difference in pronunciation, some characters saying GAWD-oh and some saying go-DOUGH. Joseph McGucken layers a slice of vaudeville on to his Vladmir. As Estragon, Barry McEvoy summons a touching sequence of grunts and sighs to end each sequence of “We’re waiting for Godot./Ah!”
- Waiting for Godot, by Samuel Beckett, directed by Robert McNamara, Scena Theatre, Washington
Perhaps influenced by my recent reading, I was struck by the reverberations of Wittgenstein’s “builders” (“Slab!”, “Block!”) with Pozzo’s commands to Lucky (“On! Back!”).
New Mexico circuit: 9
Lest I forget: breakfast at Iconik Lupe in Santa Fe, a 15-minute walk from my motel. Berry compote over granola, deliciously intense.
New Mexico circuit: 8
It’s high time to wrap up the New Mexico trip reports.
Two trips to Randall Davey Audubon Center, just outside Santa Fe, turned up flocks of Common Ravens loudly kettling in the updrafts from the ridge, often in pairs. At times the birds swooped so low that I could hear wingbeats. Pretty cool.
I followed the loop trail just to where the ponderosa pines started to come in, at about 7425 feet. So I only got one observation, from a distance, and only good enough to ID to subsection. (I still remember the strawberry-scented pinebark from a visit to Rocky Mountain National Park a couple decades ago.)
Nice photos of Mountain Chickadee (Poecile gambeli) and Pygmy Nuthatch (Sitta pygmaea). More Rubber Rabbitbrush; I can understand why there was an effort to tap the plant for rubber—it’s all over the place.
Persistence pays: on my second visit I located Juniper Titmouse (Baeolophus ridgwayi) (honoring Robert Ridgway), another lifer for the trip.
Dripping Springs Natural Area, in the mountains east of Las Cruces, is a BLM property. When the birds don’t cooperate, take pictures of the landscape, eh? This is a view of the Organ Mountains from La Cueva picnic area.
I spotted a second butterfly species for the trip (it was February, so I was impressed): a trio of Sleepy Oranges (Abaeis nicippe) on Woolly Locoweed (Astragalus mollissimus). And a few snaps of Fishhook Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus wislizeni).
Thank you to all the local iNat folks concurring with and correcting my IDs! I ratcheted my lifetime ratio of species to observations back up to 1:2. (Just in time for EDRR season.)
Seven new birds for my list, bringing my ABA Area total to 440. Plus one for next time: at White Sands, a Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis) with photographs good enough for an observation, but I can’t say that I saw the bird well enough to count it for my list. My list, my hike, my rules.
Tax relief may never come/But it don’t worry me
At least 47 hasn’t promoted Incitatus to consul. Yet.
Leader from this week’s Economist: President Trump’s mindless tariffs will cause economic havoc (gift link).
There is no reason why his extra tariffs should eliminate the [current account] deficit. Insisting on balanced trade with every trading partner individually is bonkers—like suggesting that Texas would be richer if it insisted on balanced trade with each of the other 49 states,* or asking a company to ensure that each of its suppliers is also a customer.
*and the District—Ed.
New Mexico circuit: 7
A postscript to my visit to Mesilla Valley Bosque State Park: Interpretive signs on the observation blind solicited photos of the local birds, so I submitted a couple of my best iNaturalist shots. Sid Webb added my Greater Roadrunner and Northern Harrier to the current poster. Thanks, Sid!
New Mexico circuit: 6
Continuing to bounce around the state, let’s go to White Sands National Park next.
I did the short walk on the Playa Trail, and then across the road I did the longer Dune Life Nature Trail (pic). I spotted a Southern Checkered White (Pontia protodice) (I was so surprised to find a butterfly in February that my first thought was that it must be a moth) and what turned out to be Sagebrush Sparrow (Artemisiospiza nevadensis). The sparrow would have been a lifer, but I can’t really say that I saw enough of it to make my own identification. So we’ll get it next time.
Much sand in my boots (sorry, cleaning staff!).
Also in the central-to-south part of the state is Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge.
I was too late in the season to find the cranes. The loop road is generously wide, a good thing with cars stopping at random to look at critters. 70 degrees and sun, but some cooling breezes off the impoundments. I found my first ever real live for-sure Coyote (Canis latrans). The birding highlight was seeing a small group of geese out of the water, drifting into the grass. Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) AND Ross’s Goose (Chen rossii) side by side! C. rossii is REALLY much smaller.
At the park: 151
An update on our nest boxes:
Another short report. Two new clutches; still only the one (box #4) incubating, but it’s possible that boxes #6, #1, and #67 will be incubating by next Sunday.
I will bring some kit to refresh the painted number on box #1.
We have a discrepancy in report for the species in box #1. Hopefully we can sort that out next Sunday….
In April, we’ll go to a fortnightly cycle. When we meet this coming Sunday, we’ll decide which Sundays to work in April. giving consideration to holidays and other events.
Thanks thanks!
Puzzle time
Connections
Puzzle #645
🟪🟪🟪🟪
🟦🟦🟦🟦
🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨🟨🟨🟨
The purples: obscure or not?
New Mexico circuit: 5
About a hour and a half east of Santa Fe is Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge and Conservation Area (look sharp for the tiny sign for County Road 016-Loma Parda County Road, which leads to the parking area). The Juniper Trail is easy to follow across the grassland, marked by cairns; the cairns are a bit of a challenge to find when the trail follows the rocky cliff edge overlooking the Mora River.
I found twittery groups of Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus), a better observation of Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay (Aphelocoma woodhouseii), and Mountain Bluebird (Sialia currucoides). And a first (for me) observation identified by scar only: Pronghorn (Antilocapra americana).
Not about apples
“When The Worm’s In The Core, Let It Eat,” by Mike Bendzela.
… this worm is rugged. It can survive Maine winters (its predecessors hail from Europe) — sometimes cocooned on bark, sometimes in dropped apples, other times in soil — and begins pupating in spring.
No wave
Can we at least use “modern” to refer to the same time period across all media and disciplines? Utahraptor says no.
Coming to a museum near you
Antique technology roundup:
- Neon signs in New York City.
- The ubiquitous “Gorton” pantograph font, in Manhattan and world-wide. (longread)
- Blimps over Akron, O.
Two pics of neon signs in Greater New York that I’ve happened to catch in pixels over the years.
Plug the memory hole
Boosting signal: two articles (The Conversation, Yale Environment 360) on the efforts to archive federal government websites and databases, in order to keep them online, accessible, and useful. One initiative, with Eric Nost in its leadership, is Public Environmental Data Partners.
See also GovWayback, which leverages the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine, and End of Term Web Archive, which takes snapshots at the end of administrations.
(Meta: I don’t know what of my categories to tag this post with. This isn’t a post that I’d ever imagined I’d need to write.)