Pausing at the front door only to tell my wife that I had chosen not to
go tiger hunting on an elephant, I took Hamishout for yet another walk. We
wandered up to the ball-chucking area, stopped for the usual two outputs, which
were inputted to a bag brought specially for the purpose, returned through the
woods. What an exciting life!
I’ve been reading about the past. After a volume on the Six Day war,
I’m going to tackle the Yom Kippur one and then Entebbe, all of which will set
me up for a trip to Israel if this year’s postponed wedding trip gets
rescheduled to next.
I’ve also started 1491, Le Ton beau de Marot, The Cuckoo’s Calling and
two books about Fort Point and San Francisco coastal artillery. I finished
Soccernomics and Seal Target Geronimo. The last title was about how SEALS
killed Osama Bin Laden, his son and others in the Pakistani compound. A detail
of that scene which had heretofore completely escaped my attention is that when
men rappelled in the middle of the night, they landed among hundreds of very
confused chickens.
“Whaaaaaaat?”
After a hot Friday, which was to everyone’s liking, we had rain on
Saturday. We also had thunder and lightning, both of which are rare
hereabouts. Our veg were no doubt confused... as am I by them. I’ve been
watching the starts, waiting for some hint of white from things that were
labeled (labelled) cauliflower. I turned to Wikipedia and found, “Cauliflower
is relatively difficult to grow compared to cabbage, with common problems such
as an underdeveloped head and poor curd quality.” Apparently “curd” is what
you call the white bit. My “cauliflower” are looking very much like the
cabbages I planted. Possibly someone mislabeled the starts?
Around the back the chickens’ feed can has become a magnet not only for
birds but also squirrels. Hamish spends time guarding the prize but squirrels
have the advantages of high vantage points and patience. They also seem to
have a desire to taunt. J. reports they come up to her window in Pennsylvania
to taunt her indoor cat. I sometimes have the impression they may be saying to
Hamish something like, “Nyerh, nyerh-na-nyerh nah.” The chickens asked me to
do some godly smiting.
“Mark my words,” said Mimo, “nothing good comes of sharing your food with wild
animals.”
“What exactly is the problem with that? You never run out of food.”
“They’re migrants."
Appenzeller, “Not clean.”
“Migrants,” Pecorino repeated.
“Is that prejudice I’m hearing?”
Mimo leaned in, “They carry viruses.”
“How would you know?”
Pecorino, “Because they sing about it. All that noise just before you’re going
to sleep…they’re singing, ‘We’ve got a virus.’”
“Really?”
Mimo, “To be fair, they sing about humping too.”
Appenzeller, “And worms.”
Mimo, “They sing about quite a lot really. That’s why it’s so bloody noisy.
Just when you’re thinking, ‘stillness and peace descending are what’s
required...’”
Pecorino, “We think that’s why they’re called ‘wild.’ No sense of civilized
restraint.”
“Savages,” I said.
They marched up and down, “No, no, no, no, no.”
“What does that mean? You want them to go away?”
Pecorino, “No means no."
Mimo puffed herself up, “But we’re the savage ones.”
“Imperial legacy,” said Appenzeller. “Reputation to uphold."
In soccer news, Kai Havertz impressed me and I liked this little bit
from his Wikipedia entry: “Four days later, following the suspension of
teammate Hakan Çalhanoğlu
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakan_%C3%87alhano%C4%9Flu>, he was handed his
first Champions League <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League>
start in the first leg of a round of 16 loss to Atlético Madrid
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atl%C3%A9tico_Madrid>.[9]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Havertz#cite_note-9>[10]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Havertz#cite_note-10> He was ruled out of
the return leg of the fixture in March, however, as the match clashed with the
examinations period at his school.[11]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kai_Havertz#cite_note-11>" I don’t remember
ever reading that a soccer player missed a match because he was working on
something academic.
But the smile of the week surely must have been Alphonso Davies scoring
Bayern Munich’s fifth goal. Bayern were impressive generally and the goal came
when the opponents were struggling, but it was an individual and tenacious
effort after lots of good contributions to the team. Davies was born in
Burduburam in a refugee camp to parents who were fleeing the Second Liberian
Civil War. He’s now Canadian, the most expensive Canadian player ever. Bayern
paid Vancouver $13 million for him, with performance bonuses of $22 million.
This is mostly because he’s very fast. Usain Bolt runs (briefly) at slightly
over 23 m.p.h. In a recent match Davies was clocked at 21.9 m.p.h.
Savage contestants in the Hen Racing World Championships are given up
to three minutes to travel fifteen meters.
https://www.contrarylife.com/2018/08/world-championship-hen-racing-2018-48444/ ;
<https://www.contrarylife.com/2018/08/world-championship-hen-racing-2018-48444/>
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
