Friday Photo Shoot Out: Lines

This weeks FSO theme is Lines and Stripes. I didn't have much time this week, and was prepared to just skip it, but on arriving home last night I had just time to capture some of the wonderful sky. A line of weather moving out.
Another one moving in.
The line of the earth's shadow crossing the sky.
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Other shootouts are here.

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Wednesday observations

For your reading today here are some random tidbits that don't particularly go with anything else.

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Bandersnatch does not seek out pillows for sleeping on nearly as much as the other cats. I think it must be that she's so fluffy she's her own pillow, wherever she goes.

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In Belgium you can be "unbaptized". When I saw this on the news last week, I got all excited to blog about it because it seems so absurd. If you were baptized as an infant and now adult you want to dissociate yourself from the Church, just don't go. On the other hand, a few people have been so hurt within the church that I can see how having a ceremony cutting all ties and obligations could be a step forward in the healing process. It doesn't have to make sense to me to make sense to other people.

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Freakonomics authors Dubner and Levitt went to pains to point out the role of Roe v Wade in the sudden and spectacular decrease in crime in New York in the 90's, concluding that the legalization of abortion resulted 15-25 years later in a highly significant decrease in just the sort of young men most likely to commit crimes (those born to mothers who couldn't or didn't want to handle raising children), and that this was in fact the driving force in reducing crime.

Contrast this with Tipping Point author Gladwell who fails to even mention this factor in his own chapter on what caused that same change in crime in NYC. Gladwell comes out in favor of the Broken Windows theory, citing the crackdown on graffiti and subway fare-jumping as making the difference.

What I'd like to know is why people are stuck on ONE thing making all the difference. Roe v Wade did not make a significant impact on population figures, but it had a huge impact on exactly that most vulnerable but very small part of the population. Without R v W, and without the increase in police numbers, would the anti-graffiti program have been enough to tip crime into a very steep decline? I doubt it. You need all the factors, together at the same time, and things can change. Stop saying it's the rock on the top of the pile! If the bottom rocks weren't there, the top one wouldn't be on top.

Magpie Bus

It's such a beautiful day out I almost couldn't stand to come indoors and blog. But I did want to post for both the Poetry Bus (driven here by Pure Fiction) and the Magpie Tales (by Willow, here). I haven't done a Magpie in ages (since the matchbox!). But the apple got me going, and I hope in coming weeks to do some short prose. The transition from the squarely summer days of August to the busy packing-up days of September means the garden is full of changes.

It's raining.

It was raining plums for a month, though the carpet bombing of mirabelles

seems to have stopped now.

They tapered off over the weekend and appear to be done for the year.

-However-

-The respite was brief-

It's raining again

It's raining apples no matter how fast I pick them

Dried, sauce, crumbles, pie, eaten right off the tree

Four trees covered

It's going to rain all month and into October.

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Friday Photo Shoot Out: Graffiti

This week's My Town Shootout theme is graffiti.
Where the tramway makes a long cut to go up a hill to the university campus, the concrete retaining walls are a favorite canvas for local artists.

To limit graffiti on trains (always a favorite target), they've made the train colorful. Not only does spray paint not stick as well, but even if it does, it's less noticable. And thus less rewarding for the tagger. If people can't see your work from blocks away, it's not worth doing.

Still, rail yards and underpasses are favorite places for graffiti. This building shows signs of being painted over regularly, but it remains a large blank page just begging for new decoration.

Although in certain spots graffiti seems to be tolerated, the city has a fairly aggressive campain of cleaning and overpainting that removes graffiti and keeps our town clean-looking. The other anti-graffiti strategy is to cover vulnerable buildings, like this closed (for the day) kids' center at a public housing project, with art from the community. The residents thus have a better sense of ownership and pride and are less likely to tag, but also tags are a lot less visible in the colorful chaos.
Click here to see the astounding graffiti on trains in a wrecking yard I discovered last year. And here for the Shootout links.

Have a good weekend!

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September Cat: Yersinia Pestis

Well, well, Cat of the Month already and it's only the 2nd!

Yes; I thought I'd better get this out while I still have a bit of time to breathe before the term starts.

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Yersinia!

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When Fofa and Kika moved out, happy to be back with their mom and no longer chased by Pandemonium, it became obvious that Pan needed a playmate. He was so happy to have company! He’d get so bored home alone all day that I’d come home and find the place a wreck.
Happily, Pan’s mom still lived at Eric’s grandmother’s farm, and was still having kittens, season after season. One fine day Eric stopped by with a small cardboard box, and inside was Pan’s half-sister (possibly full sister, but what were the odds of that, with so many tomcats around?)

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Yersinia Pestis was very very shy, and stayed under the furniture for days. I could tell she was white, with a patch or two of calico, but it took several days to get a good look at her. Soon enough, though, she was coming out for catfood and a spot of petting, and a bit of a wrestle with Pan. Her calico was on her head and part of a shoulder, like a slipping shawl, and her tail. It was like this calico tail was stuck onto a white cat by accident.

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It was pretty funny to see her wrestle with Pan, this small, delicate kitten and the full-size Tom. Really, she was always the one to jump at him, trying to bowl him over. Pan was ever so gentle, willing to play but never trying to win.

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Yersinia was possibly the dumbest cat I’ve ever had. Clumsy, too; she’d bonk right into things. I didn’t want to let her out so young, but Pan wanted to go out so I’d often be getting up and dancing around to let one out and not the other. Then I opened the window in the bedroom for Pan while Sinia was in the kitchen. Pan would be in, Pan would be out. Sinia couldn’t figure out how he did that. It took her four days to discover the bedroom window was open.
So I closed it, and opened instead the sliding door in the kitchen while Sinia was in the living room. Again, Pan was in, Pan was out, Pan was in, Pan was out. How did he do that???? Three days this time to discover the trick.

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Eventually Sinia was allowed out too, which was a mistake. She was such a sweet little kitty. If only she didn't try to follow Pan across the street.

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