Biomes Blog

Entry #3719: Rhythm and Roots

Attended night one of the sixty-hour-long Rhythm and Roots Festival at Ninigret Park in Charlestown RI last night. When I was 17 I was the first educational director of the environmental center, as well as a board member of the nature center in the park (as a board member I voted against the observatory being built instead of expanding the nature programming. I lost.). I thought big as a kid.

The park has grown considerably since back then, but it was cool to see that the cement steps I poured back in 1982,  that led from the parking area to the pond, were still there 32 years later (I did that carve-your-initials-in-the-cement thing, and you can still see them).

The highlight for me was being right up front for a great hour-long concert by Elizabeth Cook, who’s pretty hot and has an amazing voice (although she talked too much. Shut up and sing, as the anti-Dixie Chicks clowns used to say.)

There were a lot of food trucks to choose from, but the blackened shrimp over jambalaya, by the King Creole truck was worth going back for seconds. I like to try ingesting new things, but I made the mistake of thinking I might enjoy the Auroras Gypsy Cafe’s green truck for a wild boar burger. 

It was pretty gross, gamey and I had to smother it with ketchup and mustard to counter the thick pesto sauce they smear on it. Nasty stuff, that wild boar burger, and I chucked it away after a few bites. And it was $12 with no sides. Still, a pretty awesome night.

Entry #3718: Postal Banking

I love this idea of bringing the postal service back into the banking business. I wasn’t aware that it originally was, but Yglesias argues that it should play that role again.

It’s nice to know that this blog is not being blocked in the U.K.

Meet some creatures from the White Sea. This is a sea angel.

Entry #3717: In The Nose

Hot dogs at Five Guys are just too good for words.

What body part hurts most when it’s stung by a bee? The answer is: Nostril. 

Krugman’s The Wars of the Texas Succession.

 

Entry #3716: F'd Up

So donations to the white cop who shot an unarmed black kid in Furguson, MO outsurpassed donations to the victim. I’m an optimist in general, but we are screwed. This country’s messed up and I blame talk radio and Fox News. 

Entry #3715: I'm Irish, But I'm Also Welsh, Which Means Every So Often I Have To Occupy Myself.

I’m sure everyone has been YouTubing all kinds of Robin Williams clips and stand ups for the past week or so. You won’t find anything as funny as his appearance on Inside the Actor’s Studio.

Entry 3714: Safety Last

About Harold Lloyd.

Watch the best part of Safety Last. Lloyd did all his own stunts, and there are no trick photography scenes here. And there are supposedly no safety nets involved.

Entry #3713: Pluots And Geeps

Meet the geep, a rare sheep-goat hybrid.

Speaking of hybrids, the pluot, a merger of a plum and an apricot, is now my favorite fruit. The taste is incredible and I've been eating at least two every day since I discovered them last week.

Entry #3712: Buckets of Rain

This is the terrifying result of the militarization of police.

Meet the worst waiter in history.

Hump day musical interlude: Buckets of Rain.

Entry #3711: Herding Dogs

One nation under SWAT. “Welcome to a new era of American policing, where cops increasingly see themselves as soldiers occupying enemy territory.”

Border collies fascinate me, and if I wasn’t told they could be unpredictable around children I’d probably own one. Here’s a wonderful example of their skills. This guy seems to be doing demonstration for tourists, and I think that’s wonderful and hope he’s making a decent living at it.

Entry #3710: Blue

A Moroccan town that is painted blue.

If a monkey steals your camera and takes a selfie, who owns the copyright? The monkey, the photographer or nobody? Wikipedia says nobody and includes the shots in their collection of free images.

Entry #3709: Reggie Eats A Rat

Here's my boa, "Reggie", swallowing a frozen rat while hanging upside down.

Entry #3708: Notorious R.B.G.

This bit of nonsense demeaning the saying “do what you love, love what you do” is crap. This mantra applies to me completely. My employees love their jobs and are paid fairly well for doing it, and their compensation will grow as my business grows. I will never allow myself to earn more than my employees do, and I have 27 years of history to prove that. They are the key to my business’ success, and as my endeavor grows so will their wages.

Notorious R.B.G.

Entry #3707: Death Is Nature's Way Of Saying "Your Table Is Ready"

Entry #3706: Seeing Gregg

I’m really excited to see Gregg Allman tonight in Newport. When I was 16 I snuck into a club in Key West to see him but got caught and kicked out. 

Entry #3705: Me Being Passive-Aggressive

Here's what I want to post on the Biomes Center's facebook page, but won't for obvious reasons.

Everyone likes a bargain, and I’m pretty liberal and haphazard about breaking the admission price here and there. I may let twins in as one, or if it happens to be a kid’s birthday I’ll let him in for free, or if I just think you’re being extra pleasant and I’m in a good mood I’ll give you back a little extra change. It makes me feel good to do that once in a while.

I can understand asking about discounts for seniors, military, teachers or whatever. Nothing wrong with that at all, even though my answer will be “yes, our discount is we only charge nine bucks”.

However, the center is supported by admissions, and only by admissions. We receive no grants or donations and don’t run fundraisers of any kind. So if you show up to Biomes with six people and six photocopied “one free entry” coupons, or a stack of free passes (which we generously give out to each child that we visit at a school classroom, day care center or library, so where did you get twenty of them anyway?) so your family and twelve neighbors who are with you can waltz in for free while everyone around you has paid the regular admission fee, or if you insist that a four-year-old groupon is still valid, or claim that your four-year-old child is actually two (even when he says “no, mommy. I’m four”),  and yes, that has all happened in the past week, then you are depriving your family of the full Biomes experience. Because…

I’m there seven days a week and try to spend as much time as I can doing extra lessons, demonstrations, feedings and just interacting with our guests as much as possible for every minute of our open public hours. Showing you things that you are not going to see on your own, like the sand project, octopuses opening jars, barrelfish swimming through hoops. Those kinds of things. If you pull any of the nonsense mentioned above you will be allowed to come in, but you will be ignored. In fact, I will go out of my way to give families around you even more attention than normal. 

Call me passive-aggressive, but you’ve deprived your children of the full educational and fun experience they could have had if you weren’t gaming the system so you could save nine bucks.

Entry 3704: Fjalladrottning

A new Five Guys burger place opened up in my town last year and I finally got around to trying it. The fries suck, but the cheeseburger I got was the second best non-homemade burger I've ever had (number one was a bison burger I had years ago at Ted Turner's place). The staff were super-friendly, busy as Bokononists, and the fairly long wait was offset by the giant box of peanuts by the counter. The cashier gave me a free small fries because he recognized me as a regular (it was my first time there).

Photos of Iceland in the winter. A friend of mine is from Iceland. He said when he arrived in Boston in the 70’s he fell to his knees when he saw a tree.

Entry #3703: Knocker-up

Pablo got Tuesday's trivia, with an assist by Derryl. The guy in the photo is called a "knocker-up", an early 20th century version of a wake-up caller. (Also, I'm going to start having a higher point system for trivia so we can get more winnings to your favorite charities.) Joel is eight points away from the 100 point target.

If you want a Ruby the Octopus shirt from Teespring, we only need about five more reserved and they'll start printing the shirts.

Five myths about the moon.

Entry #3702: Marriage Proposal

Entry #3701: Reads

Trivia (20 biomes points): What’s this guy’s profession? (Hint: He’s not a window washer.)

My favorite regular reads are Charles Pierce, Mark Morford and Jim Wright. Not only for what they have to say, but in how they say it. There’s a connection of styles in these three, but someone better at analyzing linguistics than me might be able to connect the dots. I would have loved it if Kurt Vonnegut was alive during this era of blogs. Here’s Jim’s latest essay, John Boehner’s Monster.

Entry #3700: Baby Cage

In the 1930’s people living in very small apartments made extra room by constructing baby cages outside the windows. 

Esquire has a take on the best A-list cameos in movie history, and they pretty much nailed number one.

Learn the correct scientific way of cutting a cake. Or you could use plastic wrap.