Every so often (well, OK, all too often), I get ye ol' mass forwarded email that has some story or message that is often not true...and I've discussed how you can begin to verify the truth of something by doing a little digging at Snopes.com or TruthorFiction.com , though I dare say the average person is too lazy to do so. Most stories are innocuous if not annoying...but then and again you get the malicious ones that, of surprise to NO one, pop up in politically charged times.
I think the upcoming presidential election qualifies per the above. And the one I got yesterday was from an acquaintance who forwarded the worst type of message: one of boldfaced lies that are meant to harm a candidate for no other
reason than irrational fear and a sick sense of self-righteous religiosity. I wanted to fire back my salvo of disgust to his email of Barrack Obama being of secretive militant Muslim upbringing and other pathetic assertions proven false time and again...but I had to trust that anyone who gets that tripe trashes it...he didn't, though...and worse yet, he spammed it out to others. People like doing that when it fits their personal/religious agenda...and you'd think the pursuit of Truth would be paramount to someone so pious as he (take my word for it)...time to move on to neater stuff...
This past weekend while staying at mom's after the Saturday art show, I was walking around the house looking at all the wonderful work they'd done to the garden areas, etc...and then I ran right up on something I'd totally forgotten mom mentioned a while back: they have a white squirrel. Sure as shootin' (except there was no real shootin' as I did not have my camera), there it was in front of me, 12 feet away...but I quickly realized it wasn't albino, which has the pinkish color cast and red eyes in the animal kingdom. This one was snow white with deep indigo eyes, and an ever so thinnish smoky colored line down its spine. Here's your new word for today if you've not run across it before: Leucism (LOO-sih-zum)
(leucistic Ball Python)
My first encounter with a leucistic animal was when, on behalf of the Nature Conservancy, I visited a Valdosta State professor and professional herpetologist in south Georgia many moons ago. A charming elderly couple they were, and I was warmly invited into their cozy Victorian style living room and offered tea...while all around me were no less than 50 glass cages with rare and odd snakes he was studying. If it sounds like a bizarre scene, it was all that and more, trust me. After our discussions of Nature Conservancy business, he began to show me a little of what he was currently researching...and one of his specimens he pulled out was a leucistic milk snake (appropriate for the medium, eh?)...absolutely snow white, with indigo eyes so deep as to appear black. It was on loan to him for genetic research, one of only 6 people supposedly cleared to work with it.
Speaking of mom and her resident leucistic squirrel, she had also put up a hummingbird feeder a few weeks ago but had no takers or even seen one...shortly after seeing the squirrel, I saw several hummers flitting around her late-blooming Gumpo azaleas that survived the late freeze. I rehung the feeder in a more favorable location so that they would be more likely to find the feeder. Hummingbirds are cute and fascinating to watch...and can be bold little buggers, too!
I made a special flute (pictured) in African Satinwood and Redwood Burl caps to which I added a hummer inlay in their honor last year...I used Malachite, Pink Coral, and crushed Abalone in the design. The beak on the hummer block was a little longer but, alas, such is a design not user-friendly with putting into a polarfleece bag!
Time for me to get rollin'...have a good 'un everybody!
I think the upcoming presidential election qualifies per the above. And the one I got yesterday was from an acquaintance who forwarded the worst type of message: one of boldfaced lies that are meant to harm a candidate for no other
reason than irrational fear and a sick sense of self-righteous religiosity. I wanted to fire back my salvo of disgust to his email of Barrack Obama being of secretive militant Muslim upbringing and other pathetic assertions proven false time and again...but I had to trust that anyone who gets that tripe trashes it...he didn't, though...and worse yet, he spammed it out to others. People like doing that when it fits their personal/religious agenda...and you'd think the pursuit of Truth would be paramount to someone so pious as he (take my word for it)...time to move on to neater stuff...This past weekend while staying at mom's after the Saturday art show, I was walking around the house looking at all the wonderful work they'd done to the garden areas, etc...and then I ran right up on something I'd totally forgotten mom mentioned a while back: they have a white squirrel. Sure as shootin' (except there was no real shootin' as I did not have my camera), there it was in front of me, 12 feet away...but I quickly realized it wasn't albino, which has the pinkish color cast and red eyes in the animal kingdom. This one was snow white with deep indigo eyes, and an ever so thinnish smoky colored line down its spine. Here's your new word for today if you've not run across it before: Leucism (LOO-sih-zum)
(leucistic Ball Python)My first encounter with a leucistic animal was when, on behalf of the Nature Conservancy, I visited a Valdosta State professor and professional herpetologist in south Georgia many moons ago. A charming elderly couple they were, and I was warmly invited into their cozy Victorian style living room and offered tea...while all around me were no less than 50 glass cages with rare and odd snakes he was studying. If it sounds like a bizarre scene, it was all that and more, trust me. After our discussions of Nature Conservancy business, he began to show me a little of what he was currently researching...and one of his specimens he pulled out was a leucistic milk snake (appropriate for the medium, eh?)...absolutely snow white, with indigo eyes so deep as to appear black. It was on loan to him for genetic research, one of only 6 people supposedly cleared to work with it.
Speaking of mom and her resident leucistic squirrel, she had also put up a hummingbird feeder a few weeks ago but had no takers or even seen one...shortly after seeing the squirrel, I saw several hummers flitting around her late-blooming Gumpo azaleas that survived the late freeze. I rehung the feeder in a more favorable location so that they would be more likely to find the feeder. Hummingbirds are cute and fascinating to watch...and can be bold little buggers, too!
I made a special flute (pictured) in African Satinwood and Redwood Burl caps to which I added a hummer inlay in their honor last year...I used Malachite, Pink Coral, and crushed Abalone in the design. The beak on the hummer block was a little longer but, alas, such is a design not user-friendly with putting into a polarfleece bag!Time for me to get rollin'...have a good 'un everybody!
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