Peregine FalconHi again and yep, from the ramparts of the Bastion on the Puget Sound, it’s been another interesting week. And a sad one for the loss of Patrick Swayze, another good human being who shared the best of himself as an actor with those who loved his work; and as a good human being with those who had the honor and privilege of knowing him more intimately.
I remember him not so much for Dirty Dancing or even Ghost as I do for this outrageous film, A Tall Tale, in which he starred, along with Oliver Pratt, another of my favorite actors, as Pecos Bill. I grew up on legends like that so when I also got to see John Henry and Paul Bunyan, et al, it was like, yep, maybe not anywhere else, but in America, we have those who can lasso and ride a tornado and swing one mean axe. It was painted in the broadest possible brushstrokes and Swayze, who is not real tall, played it grandly.
The other film strikes deeper on a different level because despite the fact that the American government’s made some real mistakes abroad and her people have acted at times with what the International Community has considered incredible self-indulgence, there’s a lot more to us than that. Despite our size and power, we are yet historically a young and growing nation. Like any other, we are prone to wear our ignorance, our shortcomings, our character flaws and our mistakes in judgment on our proverbial sleeves.
I worry that groups bent on the destruction of anything not like them might read that the wrong way, and assume that Americans are not willing to die on their own shores to protect what they so cherish. The reality is that Americans die every day in defense of their country. I was raised by two generations of law enforcement and that’s the first among many examples which come to mind.
Red Dawn to me clearly demonstrated what Americans will do if pushed to the max. I don’t know how many of you remember the premise for that one but it was the invasion of a small town in the American Rocky Mountains and was a microcosm for apparently another world war. In it, Patrick Swayze starred as the leader of a handful of teenagers who rose up after their parents were rounded up and executed. That resistance group became known as the Wolverines. Yes, Jennifer Grey was his costar in that one.
It was a savage film and it was not made to glorify violence, promote anarchy, or to vilify those who brought this war to our shores. It was not meant to suggest that killing ~ under any circumstances ~ is pleasant, but rather that long after the land has restored itself, the human memories of what happened will remain. I’ve been to battlegrounds across the Pacific, including Nagasaki’s Ground Zero and yes, each and every one of them was haunted. In Red Dawn, they were too.
So to me, Patrick Swayze played to an American love of tall tales and big dreams. And he also resonated what Americans of any age will do if violence is brought to their land as it has been several times in the recent past. Our learning curve, by international standards, may be long
but we are neither weak nor stupid. It would be a tragic mistake in judgment to assume either.
Oookay, off the soapbox and moving right along here, I have got to love the reader who felt the need to share this bon mot of human behavior. Seems there was this couple in Wichita, Kansas whose options for romantic privacy were apparently slim next to none. They climbed into a dumpster to cuddle and stuff and were interrupted (apparently during the “stuff” part) by two old guys who robbed them at pocketknife point and then departed. The police apprehended the ‘perps’ so the couple got their belongings back.
I’m just trying to imagine, from both the police officers’ perspective and the couple themselves, the dialogue that must have gone on around what they were doing in the dumpster in the first place. What this also tells me is that this is NOT Dorothy’s Kansas. You guys accuse me every once in awhile of making this stuff up. So if you don’t believe me, check it out here. This was weird.
Closer to home, we here in Seattle are saying good-bye to a woman who not only proved there was no gender ceiling but also who epitomizes the best in community law enforcement. Her name is Linda Pierce and she was one of four assistant chiefs of police. Her time with the Seattle Police Department included, according to Seattle Times reporter Steve Miletich, command of “the Special Operations Bureau, overseeing operations and planning, the arson and bomb units, Harbor Patrol and the operational support and criminal intelligence sections.”
Chief Pierce is leaving to run the public safety department for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. She and her husband, who recently retired, have a home back there in this extreme northeastern part of Washington, on the Canadian border. We wish her and her family well and express our sincere gratitude for the exemplary service she gave this community.
As far as critter stories, there have been no new mountain lion incidents up our way but as I got out and sampled local opinion, I found some profound misconceptions about cougars that, if acted on, could really make things complicated for all involved. So far that hasn’t happened yet here but it has other places. So here’s a site that tells you how it really is with these magnificent cats. I’m suggesting reading this before you try to pet one or reach for the Winchester on the gun rack.
Well, vineyard owners in California have come up with a way to protect their grape harvest from the hordes of starlings which swoop in on them each year this time and which so far have proven pretty much immune to any other measures employed in these regards. I’m not a fan of starlings. I wouldn’t be if I was a bird. They are second on the obnoxious scale only to bluejays, with whom I also have issues.
So it comes as some personal satisfaction to learn that peregrine falcons are patrolling those friendly skies. Falconers hire out to individual land owners in an arrangement that seems to be working very well and is certainly not without precedent. Anyone with the slightest interest in falcons knows that they’ve been doing things like this for at least as long as the first wild dogs decided to share a cave and a fire with us. For a look at one of these noble works of talons, beak, feathers and superb aerodynamic engineering, please go here.
I’m also some relieved ~ as I’m sure most of you will be too ~ to learn that scientists have apparently decided that a squid’s brain may not have been as good a model to study how human gray matter works as they for awhile thought.. Apparently it’s taken them fifty years to reach this conclusion. Yep, I’ll give you a sec with that one.
First of all, I want to know what madness possessed these over-educated idiots in the first place. I have bad hair days but I have never remotely resembled this weird looking thing out of a Jules Verne nightmare.
Second, what conclusions were reached and what was tried on humans as a result of this profound hiatus from good sense? I mean, rats are a stretch for me too in these regards and I do not keep them as pets because with a Maine coon cat for a roomie, anything caged, breathing and smaller than a German shepherd puppy is a Sasha meal waiting to happen. There is totally no way a squid fits into this scenario. Now all that needs to happen is to learn that it’s been for half a century also in part funded by tax dollars. Alaska’s Bridge to Nowhere made better sense. At least it was good practice for those who planned and built it.
And on a final note, I was absolutely thrilled to learn that the University of Washington (three blocks from here) has been awarded a $126-million grant to build a 500 mile power and Internet grid along the floor of the Pacific Ocean on the Juan de Fuca plate. According to KING FIVE (NBC affiliate) television news reporter Lori Matsukawa:
“Researchers believe the data gathered will help them understand all sorts of natural phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, storms, rainfall patterns, tsunamis, algae blooms, oxygen depletion and sea life. Natural events that influence climate change.”
These are good things for us who live here to know and what’s cool is that so much of what can be learned can be applied, appropriately modified, elsewhere. To me, it’s an appropriate use of both science and the funding source. I like it a lot better than thinking about my tax dollars going into finding out how much like a squid we’re not.
Until next week then, thanks once again for the ear. Take care, stay well and God Bless.
Rusty
NORTHSTAR RECOMMENDS
To Your Health
If you’d like to know whether your eating habits are either adding years to your life or taking them off, take this RealAge quiz. It will not only score your real age against your health age but give you a program for improvement. I’ve been working this one for about a month now and yep, I feel a lot better.
Want to know how to live to be 100? Try this one.
Ever had trouble getting behind eating a lot of fruits and vegetables despite how good they are for you? Ever had trouble selling that one to your kids and grandkids? Ever been totally sold on the idea then gone to the market and been totally tasered by the price of good health in some places? If your answer is yes to any or all of the above, you really need to check this site out. Fruits and veggies: more matters.
Online Tools for the Kit
Free People Search – This is an American online White Pages that I found really simple, quick and user friendly. I looked for myself under the several versions of my name and it found them all. It’s also free and doesn’t involve anything to download.
Know Thy Elected Officials - Just type in your zip code and this site will supply you with the names and contact information for your legislators from the state level up. This is a two click site with a host of other relevant features.
Media
Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean – Live from the smallest record store in North America. Canadian humor, entertainment and commentary at its maple leaf best. Popular on National Public Radio in the States.
Sightline Daily (formerly Tidepool) – The “United Press International/Reuters of the American West/ Updated and informative news shorts with links to the source. Its editors draw from a coverage area which includes Alaska, British Columbia, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. Update and informative collected news shorts from those sources. They also put out an excellent weekly environmental edition.
U Got Style is a monthly ezine dedicated to independent films. Fully illustrated, it features hard news, interviews, reviews and a wide variety of other information. It’s also fun to read.
The Vancouver Sun, outstanding source for Canadian and world news.
Talent For Hire
Rusty Miller, Freelance Photojournalist – Whether it’s a one time press release, book or product review, difficult business correspondence, resume or classified ad composition you need, take a look at the services offered menu on my writer-for-hire homepage and we’ll get together on it.
Are you a travel editor looking for color shots of Seattle? Are you an art dealer looking for new work to carry on consignment? You might enjoy checking out a gallery of my work for sale
COMING ATTRACTIONS
In the weeks to come, we’re going to create ~ in addition to Northstar Recommends ~ a Northstar General Store in which you, the readers, will have an opportunity to market your own goods and services and, as well, to shop here. We’re going to get real creative with this and whenever possible, we’ll have tried what we’re carrying on the shelves, as it were. We’ll be taking a straight ten percent for this, via Paypal. We’ll also consider barter and trade.
If you’ve got any recommendations of your own and are interested in the General Store, email me and we’ll talk.
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