msch6980.bsky.social
From the time of Ace Doubles. I can pass for a homeless psychotic Viet Nam vet, but I’m not. Living like Mr Natural: nasty, brutish, poor, solitary, short, and scruffy.
64 posts
4 followers
4 following
Discussion Master
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I hear that Kit Rocha was of two minds about it, even when they both agree
(When she both agree? Pronouns confuse me, apologies if I got it wrong)
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Well, actually, Sec’y Noem explained that it was like the way the British staffed their navy: “Press gangs” would kidnap people off the street and enslave them. That’s why originalists say “freedom of the press” means the President has the power to kidnap people and send them into slavery overseas.
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I went to law school but I didn’t do well enough to become a romance writer
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Have you considered replacing yourself with a drought tolerant variety?
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I had several in Albuquerque’s north valley and the ones I stopped watering, died
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“I am an academic, and a Coastal Elite, and an inhabitant of a city Trump calls a 'hell-hole'.”
Nonetheless we lurkers support you
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Prophylaxis
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I think I saw Ursula at the Albuquerque protest. Isn’t that her in the distance, behind the guy with the sign?
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If you get in after noon the roads should be clean and dry. Even in Edgewood it should be 45 by noon, and the black asphalt warms up quickly. Of course, the gravel roads to your house may take a bit longer.
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I like to call myself “Mr Natural” because I’m poor, solitary, nasty, brutish, and short
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“March of the Tumbleweeds” by Rimsky-Korsakov
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Well, actually, that’s an example of mimicry in nature. Those aren’t tulips, but a variety of cholla mimicking tulips. Cholla tulipiensis. Beware the almost invisible but most irritating spines.
Here’s some cholla daffodilliensis in my yard in NE Albuquerque today
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Dog dish holder? Put the plant pots where the dog dishes go?
i.pinimg.com/originals/fc...
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Yes yes yes absolutely
www.cabq.gov/parksandrecr...
You can walk almost among the cranes - within 30 feet, they’re accustomed to people.
You can also get there by parking at the Little Anita’s on 4th and walking west along the acequia. There may be owls in the boxes nailed to the cottonwoods
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Sorry, having problem with this intrusive image:
You, weirdly sitting on the evil roadrunner god - in egg form, of course - all dark and broody, probably wearing a fabulous hat, for 10 years, until it hatches. Hijinks ensue.
I wish I could draw. I’d title it ’don’t sit there it’ll hatch’
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Rumors:
Scalzi shakes Tiny Fist, produces Old Man’s Burrito, universe ends.
Ellison shakes Tiny Fist, produces Dangerous Revisions 7,879th edition, universe ends
Kit Rocha shakes Tiny Fist, produces Horny Librarians meet Mercenary Dragon, universe ends
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Coming: “Tiny Fist”, new novel from award winning horror author U. Vernon. Updating the classic “Monkey’s Paw” this story of an app that grants wishes to artists and sculptors but with horrific consequences - 3d printing meets Forbidden Planet via neural implants
Musk says available in two years
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“WE WERE BORN FOR THIS”
I think you’re misunderstanding the ‘born for’ vs ‘born to’ distinction. If you read the literature the term ‘born for’ with respect to a person (ego) refers to the father’s clan, while ‘born to’ identifies the mother’s.
I move we appoint a committee to look into this.
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For high value, plant an Apple Store.
To feed many people, plant a Costco.
I plant iris and crocus and larkspur and poppies and phlox and peonies so I can sit in my rocking chair and produce my own vitamin D, naturally.
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Yep, it’s always Mercator Projection with them.
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There’s an opuntia lingula in the back yard, it’s supposed to be in a 2’ x 8’ bed. When it gets to 16’ x 6’ by 4’ high I go after it with shovel and barbecue tongs, a difficult and dangerous process that produces more than 100lbs of trimmings I must dispose of.
I wouldn’t plant cholla. Never.
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Agave aren’t without problems. This is a yard in Albuquerque. As you see, the agave have spread by runners into an impenetrable mass, which collects trash and debris. There’s of course a dead agave at the base of each flower stalk, and removing them has defeated me.
Small tumbleweed for scale
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As John the Baptist reportedly said:
PREPARE YE for the day KOB-TV reports “a major winter storm has left snow and blowing snow across the Eastern Plains, with 6 foot drifts and zero visibility. State Police have closed I40 from Tramway to the Texas state line. Hundreds are stranded”
Soon.
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Sharyn McCrumb, “Bimbos of the Death Sun”
More like meta-sf
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrett....
Spider Robinson
Mostly not novel length, but there are a number of humorous sf things listed here, including Asimov short stories:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feghoot
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly...
(Other Gerold works, including Tribbles“
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I’ve got feral nm olives on my 20ac in the Zuni mtns at 7500 feet. They’re nice, but more like scraggly bushes, not one is much taller than me. I didn't think of them as windbreak material.
The area was clear cut in about 1930, and burned, but the ponderosa have grown back 50 feet tall.
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As you’ve said you’re in piñon/juniper land, but piñon have been dying of bark beetles and juniper pollen is a hazmat situation in the spring, you’re probably too low for ponderosa even at 6600 ft and they’re all rather slow growing.
Have you considered billboards? Or a row of cell towers?
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Someone I know on Albuquerque’s west mesa tried to plant a line of thuja as a windbreak but they all died. Twice.
They claim to be fast growing drought tolerant and hardy, but I don’t know.
Sorry, not very helpful. I don’t recall seeing any successful windbreaks growing on the eastern plains.
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I think it’s the same animal they used for this very realistic book cover - there’s a machine near Edgewood that brings to life things from people’s unconscious
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My refrigerator wasn’t getting enough stimulation and had licked all the paint off one spot so I tried to train it to run agility. It did ok on the weave poles but the jumps were a problem. I finally had to rehome it. It’s happy in a middle school classroom, it loves kids
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Reclaim the glory that is our birthright!
EBCDIC will rise again!!!
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Upon reflection, I blame A.A.Milne
The Pooh quote my memory throws up: “a useful box to put things in” is wrong, it’s “a useful pot”. But still, I think that’s where I got my tendency to collect possibly useful boxes.
If anyone knows a good anti emetic for my mind, let me know.
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That explains why, as I was riding with a friend down Menaul, I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of great ideas were suddenly born.
Went on down to the Talavera place on Rio Grande, where I contemplated a life sized pig and a half sized saint, and saw your sink. It’s waiting.
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Well, actually, hippie folks in the East mountains have been trying to raise Guinea fowl for decades. Escapees have gone feral, and formed great herds which roam the eastern plains like the bison of olde. We don’t talk about it to avoid scaring tourists, but small towns have been trampled to dust.
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Should have left the name Kroeber but changed the referent to his daughter, Ursula LeGuin. Or, I remember when the Berkeley anthro department was in two temporary wooden buildings left over from WWII, creatively named T-1 and T-2. I suppose they’re gone, but the names could live on. To help memory
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Well, actually, the tourist bureau has interviewed many cranes who say that the bird baths are the reason they stop here. Having stopped, they patronize other business. The economic benefit is significant.
Birders who come to see the cranes may also spend money, but they’re hard to interview
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Well, actually, Albuquerque has bird baths for the Sandhill Cranes at the Montano open space that are like bird washes. Long buildings, platforms that carry the birds past whirling brushes and water/soap jets. I’ve seen hundreds of cranes lined up waiting. Must use thousands of gallons and kilowatts
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I’ve got you outnumbered: I’m the four most. Anyway, here’s some information on the geology and hydrology of the area
ngmdb.usgs.gov/Prodesc/prod...
From the pictures she’s on alluvium, and I think the town water is drawn from an aquifer. I’m not an expert but I’d call it high plains, not desert.
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They do it to be hip.
That’s why so-called bird baths are really bird sized hip baths.
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Well, actually, evolution favors bird baths. Birds who bathe regularly attract more mates and have greater reproductive success.
People who can say ‘why don’t you come up and see my bird baths?’ are similarly favored.
As one chick put it, “even as an egg I knew it was all about getting laid”
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This is ineffective unless the stake goes through the heart. Most people aren’t familiar with birdbath anatomy, miss the heart, and end up with an annoyed birdbath.
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Drop in on T Kingfisher. She’s got 3 acres. You could build a yurt. Hire some Irisboys to drive your herd of iris cross country.
When the spring winds come you could end up somewhere colorful, and get a free pair of shoes. TumbleYurts are welcome everywhere.
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Having masks within reach when you open the front door is a good idea. You could consider hanging a few fabulous hats there, too
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“Hound, I don’t think we’re in Edgewood anymore “
(Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Tie-downs)
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“Well, why don't you hang your pan out in the wind and let the sand blast it clean?”
Spring winds are coming to NM, you may not need dishwasher. Guy wires, however, are de rigueur
(Quote from ST:TOS “Mudd’s Women “)
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Today you should reach the low point, crossing the Mississippi at Memphis (elev ~300’). Drop your kayak in the water, you can paddle to Minneapolis, Cincinnati, New Orleans, Pueblo CO. Or cross the river and revisit highway 61 with Bob Dylan. You’ll be on sedimentary rock until past Edgewood.
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Along I40 in Amarillo in the late 70s there was a giant billboard boasting that Amarillo was the home of the world’s largest manure pile. If it’s still there and you see it, wave for me
Also keep an eye on for the half buried Cadillacs on the south side of I40 just west of town
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The author’s chaotic spirit shines through. Building on a lot of great lines, she has produced a reflection of a life that perhaps even she did not consciously intend. Four stars
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A sprawling, ambitious work but the author failed to bring the various threads together into a coherent plot. Perhaps a good editor could untangle it, but I just can’t see what she was going for - it’s all over the place. Two stars
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Prints of whales, prints of darkness, prints of peas