Saturday, October 02, 2004
FOR THE BIRDS
Considering the troubles we seem to be having in some areas concerning the use of firearms, a once prominent style of hunting – that done with birds – may be revived..
Falconry is far from dead. It has merely been lost in the background for a century or so. It was, at one time,was a major form of hunting. In fact falconry was at a such a peak of in the 1200's's that social standing was judged by the type of birds a person kept to do is hunting for him
It is thought to have started around 680 BC in China, although some disagreement challenges that starting site in favor of a site a thousand miles to the west. Man discovered the natural hunter in the skies could be trained to do his thing for him, and, in time, he became dependent on the hawk types of birds to keep him provided with small game- birds such as ducks , geese and others. The birds to be trained were netted as adults or hatched from eggs and trained to hunt down prey, hold it or bring it to the human hunter than go to his or her perch o be fed as a reward for a job well done. The job of training such a hunting bird took many hours of special, patient care, as you may imagine, and continues to this day in keeping the sport active.
Frederick II was the King of more countries than he could shake a scepter at. A gifted linguist he spoke in the language of his choice and he always spoke well of hawks and kept the breed which was judged to be socially proper for his rank and constant use. He wrote a book or two on Falconry which survived for several centuries as authority on the subject. You still find his words quoted in modern falconry literature.
The Peregrine falcon is the one most frequently met with in the United States and we have all heard how the improper use of DDT harmed the bird until there was fear of its being driven from the area. It is back again and any hunter who wishes may train a peregrine or some other hawk variety to do his no-gun hunting if one has neighbors or busybodies who object to the bang-bang types of hunting. Frederick II was knowledgeable about many existing types of falconry and spent time and studied at serious depths in Sicily (where he was also King) and throughout the Arabic nations as well He spoke seven languages, it is said, and and used to enjoy talking with foreign sailors along the wharfs abut the use of falcon in their homelands.
Usually the training of the birds is left to people who do so professionally and then, they, in turn,hand the trained hawk over to someone who can learn to handle and manage the bird with a few hawk-driving lessons and field experience.. The bird is trained not to rend the prey or mark it in any way. Usually it is content simply to kill the bird or small animal as it pounces upon them and sets ts long claws in the flesh of the victim. It flutter to the ground and holds the prey until the hunter can assume possession of his kill.
Falconry devotees are lavish in their praise of the satisfaction a hunter gets on seeing his bird capture prey, be it another bird in flight , or a dive from above to hit prey on the ground. No one has yet told me how the bird knows what the prey is to be - a bird, a lamb , rabbit or what.. Maybe its a matter of the hunter accepting, gratefully, whatever food the falcon supplies for his table.
Even if you are not interested in becoming a falconry hunter, the idea of training birds to be your hand afar suggests a fascinating hobby or avocation.
I don't know anyone who has a hobby of that nature, but it beats stamp collecting or gathering cookie jars, cracked crocks, or knitted antimacassars. Instead, why not make your New Year one for the birds? That allows you plenty of time. It takes about thirty-three days for falcon eggs to hatch, after you find them.
A..L.M. October 1, 2004 [c728wds]
Friday, October 01, 2004
MULTI-ACTORS
Some of my favorite Hollywood personalities over the years have been what I call “self” actors and actresses. The term is not a legitimate theatrical one, I know, but it describes my satisfaction the special knack some the actors have which allows them to play a wide variety of roles - diversified personalities and ways of living - but , at the same time to maintain their own identification combined with the illusion they are creating.
It should not work, of course and for some it doesn't, but for the gifted few it is effective and laudable. All the while you are witnesses to the actions, mannerisms and personality quirks of Rooster Cogburn, in “True Grit” ,you are still aware of the fact that the person you see, hear and feel doing.
You are very much aware of the undoubted fact that is John Wayne whom is doing the Cogburn things so convincingly. It is, perhaps, mainly one of voice - not so much what is being said, but in the vital essence of tonal placements.
Jimmy Stewart is another actor or who does a wide diversity of roles in which he film character lives apart! Even though is Jimmy Stewart all the way. Again I feel it can be said to come from vocal intonement and he has a special knack of being able to adapt to the plot-person his own physical mannerisms – some physical ones which are strictly Stewart-tonian. He makes them become a part of the character he is portraying and we accept the changes without being upset largely because he does it all so naturally we don't realize he has done so
.
Cary Grant was another male lead who did it. Notice today, if you hear the audio from a movie running on TV in the next room, you will say “Hey! That's a Cary Grant movie!”. The whole process can be reversed when you consider some of the older western movies in which an actor played the same role for scores of pictures. Such cowboy actors became the characters they portrayed and if you had happened to meet one of them in the food market shopping for the family you might have greeted him as: “Hi, Hoppy!”
Concerning feminine stars. I don't seem to remember any who had this “to be con tinued”, double personality trait, at least not to such a marked degree. Barbara Stanwyk had a voice texture which carried over from film to film. There must have been others but I'd have to do some study time to find them.
I sometimes have wondered if we revere the memory of some of the older stars such as Wayne, Stewart and others because of the many different roles they played so well, or because of their own nature and personality which always seemed to shine thorough and make the fictional character ring true
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A.L.M. Sept. 30, 2004 [c495wds]
Thursday, September 30, 2004
LOOSE ENDS
Far too much election-time talk is sheer nonsense.
Have you noticed how often many politicians have been setting forth detailed condemnations of existing or proposed programs or procedure without having anything better which might be used to replace it to advantage?
If, as a builder, you plan to kick out a supporting wall or post, you will want to be certain you have something sturdy and strong to replace it, or you risk the entire structure falling down on your head.
Things just don't work the way some simplistic-minded people seem to think they do. So, when a politician paints graphic scene from a world that does not exist they can be deeply flawed. If he wants a complete withdrawal of armed forces from a specific area, he must also set forth how he plans to maintain the stability of that area once the troops are withdrawn. To simply pull them out is not enough. We owe that much to ourselves and to those people dependent on our troops being there. The suddenly withdraw supporting funding causes the same sort of misery. Withdrawn, maintenance funds handicap work-in-progress; harm everyone concerned and unless something is put is place of that withdrawn we have been totally remiss in our obligations.
“I will do thus and so...”is a common statement these days and nights being said by some who have not the slightest idea what they might actually be able to do, if elected , only that they will do away with that which now exists. What he sometimes means is that the name of the project will be changed and the plans continued with different persons in charge. Few individuals can come up with panacea recipes to replace detailed projects planned and being executed by many able and qualified people working together. Yet far too many make promises which are know at the time to be unlikely, if not impossible are being blatantly set forth. I have not heard any candidate say so, as yet, but it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear someone proclaim:”Elect me in November. Have our boys and girls home by Christmas!.”
Many voters would hear such a promise and think it made reference to our military “boys and girls”. Unused thus far, such a gross statement would be rebut ed, I hope. The same sort of double meaning used far too often in other area of other concern. Take this matter, for instance, of Presidents supposedly “creating new jobs” Healthy economies create new job opportunities – not Presidents from any political party.
Today, on the last day of September, we are about five weeks away from that day we will walk into the narrow confines of a voting booth and be there all alone to register our choice of the man we hope will be the leader of our nation for the next four years. I heard two TV newsmen exchanging views this morning and they seemed concerned about a growing sense of apathy among many of us. They hoped tonight's initial debate between Kerry and Bush in Miami would engender some enthusiasm to see us go the end of this race.
Guilty or not guilty? I've heard so many average persons say
“I'll be so glad when all this election stuff is over and done with!”
A.L.M. September 30. 2004 [c562wds]
Wednesday, September 29, 2004
HURRY!
What's the big rush?
I find it is now extended to include our leisure time, so we can hurry it all up and get back to work.
One theme park has announced it was building an new, scarier and more daring ride for the youngsters of both body and mind, to quake over. Another park let it b e know that is what they were doing and they are now hurrying construction to see who can be the first to build the fastest, highest, deepest and, loudest “roller coaster” of 'em all!
Now, there's a fine old term which has become antique almost beyond recognition: “roller coaster”. It used to mean a park or carnival ride which looked like the frame work for a building without the building; spread out in a bent line around several acres of land to make the riders think they had been somewhere. You could see the framework sticking up in the air a good hundred yards before you came to the amusement,but today's colossal scaffolding rigs form a skyline all their own from miles away from the park.
Lit up o at night they look like strung out spider webs to catch light planes, and low-flying condors, and other birds on their way to the amazing global wetlands which are said to be disappearing at rate equal to that of the authentic, genuine roller coaster.
The new rides will zip you off to a good start -up to 128 MPH in the first 3.5 seconds. After your stomach catches up with you, you realize you are climbing upward at a ninety degree angle and when you get to the top you actually be;live your are 456 feet above those milling throngs of ant-like creatures moving about in the park below. You spiral downward toward them, doing some flips ,turns, twists, curves, pretzel-like contortions along the way.
At the moment, during construction, the other ride promises to drop you off 129-foot hill to produce a feeling of weightlessness They creep along at a mere 120 mph, and go only to 420 feet up. The one installation is in New Jersey the other Ohio so if we check on relative sea levels between Garden State and Buckeye State terrain they can probably claim to be about the same.
When, I wonder, is all of this roller rampage going to come to a screeching halt? Will it – ever?
Oh, by the hurried way, the total travel time on one of the rides, I forget which one, is fifty-five seconds - from start to finish!
We gotta cut down on that total time so we can hurry more people through the procedure.
We had best send somebody a note on that point. Mark it “URGENT!” and hand-write across it with a with a red marker :“ASAP!”
A. L. M. September 28, 2004 [c480wds]
Tuesday, September 28, 2004
BIG WIND
The bay of Biscayne area of Florida is in for yet another blow this week. It, too, as with other recent big wind visitors, is unpredictable insofar as the direction it might take at any given moment.
It has a name. It is called the "First". It is part of a series of four planned "Debates" between contending forces of the present Presidential elections.
As number one in the series, experience shows it will at attract a far larger audience - some have said up to 50-million viewers – than those which will follow. The first one always does better and I think it might be because because so many viewers are disappointed in what they see and hear. Somehow the term "debate" doesn't quite encompass the far narrower concept of what we actually see and hear.
It is quite true that we see the two contending candidates on stage and hear one berate the other or his policies or lack of them. We hear opposite views expressed pretty much along the same lines as we have been listening to for weeks and months, but other than the fact that they are politically opposites, we see very little difference between them. Each of them is certainly qualified to be there or they would not have gotten this far. This year the competition has an unusual feature in the fact that both President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry had the same debate teacher at Yale University years ago. It would be interesting to know how that teacher or debate coach graded the two during their student years. It is still not too late for some deep-digging member of the media to evoke whatever statutes are presently required to gain access to Yale U. files and to come up with the grades students Bush and Kerry merited in the debates they did in college. Whatever it was will, no doubt, become evident when the two meet again on Thursday evening in Miami. Each of them seems to be more capable of doing a:debate ate: tha we have had in the Past. So this may well be a redeeming bout and give some impetus to the ones which will follow.
I hope so. We need more of this “Lincoln-Douglas” sort of political clarification of public affairs. If we look at the massive TV audience as being the “Judge” we will see how these two contenders do this time. I think the success or failure of the debates this year will determine if they are to be continued as a culmination package for our already too long campaign season.
Watch it. Be one of the prodigious panel of Judges. Many reports will say : “they both won.” We need more straightforward honesty if we are to profit from such meetings. One still has to decide if his favorite is a talker or a doer.
Decide that critical point and vote in November.
A.L.M. September 27, 2004 [c499wds]
Monday, September 27, 2004
ON HOLD
There are quite a few subjects which are going to remain “on hold” until the presidential election is completed.
It is unfortunate, but that is the way it works. Both major political parties avoid stirring up anything which might be misunderstood or purposely twisted to bring about their ruin.
As an example and of prime importance as soon as we feel we can discuss it safely, is the obvious fact that American forces in Iraq are going to have to be expanded, it is becoming increasingly evident that we are going to have to re-establish some form of military draft to expand our armed strength. We cannot continue to “draft” men and women from the National Guard. It is limited and, unfortunately, recruiting has dwindled due to the continued and, in some cases repeated calls to active service .We will have to be content with talk about shorter tours of duty, perhaps. Many feel we have mis-used the National Guard in recent years, anyway. There was time when regular army personnel looked upon the National Guard as a way for some men to avoid being drafted, and they sometimes scoffed at it as a haven for son's of rich men. Certainly some individuals whom I have known joined the National Guard limited service programs to avoid induction. The National Guard, in most cases, was thought of as being a civil defense force . They have been “called out” by several presidents to prevent civil disturbances - strikes, segregation and disasters -natural and otherwise. An echo of this past estimate of the National Guard have almost surfaced in criticism of George W. Bush having served in the Guard. Each time it has been mentioned it has been quelled because to hold that body up to any ridicule which now constitutes the backbone of our armed forces could be a costly thing on Election Day.
Don't expect to hear abut any meaningful changes in our foreign trade problem, either - trade deficits and a continued flow of American jobs and manufacturing facilities to overseas locations. That, too, is on hold until after election day when, it is hoped, we can return to the relatively calm land of ordinary living.. I find it interesting that we can become a people so markedly divided in so many vocative ways can ways can, still find it possible to seek and actually find an amazing sense of peace and unity.
The federal budget and the continued existence of Social Security programs and Medicare will be back on the desk for changes without all the pseudo-dramatic tenseness, frantic warnings of imminent dissolution and bankruptcy and such colorations so artfully applied in pre-vote days, weeks and months. I ,for one, will be glad to witness the return of normal times so we can get on with our lives. We will, no doubt, look back upon this particular presidential race as have been the one when we had an unusual series of hurricanes which struck Florida, in particular, and, we hope, blew away all evidence of chads and uncounted ballots so noticeable during the last election. We won't hear much about that subject either until the election decides - one way or another we hope, this time.
A.L.M. September 26, 2004 [c547wds]
Sunday, September 26, 2004
FIRST ONE
More-and-more, it seems, no one can be said to have been “first” to make, do, say or think anything.
We often credit the wrong people with inventing the handy, convenient gadgetry we use so extensively today .It seems so unfair and there is an entire breed of do-gooders who are manning the barricades to do battle with anyone who champions anyone other than their favorite.
I know better but I still find myself thinking that Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb. Most people I know say Edison did it, but contending arguments from encyclopedia sources, patent office records, and chronic debunker's in the media crevices, contend that he only “improved” upon existing patents for making more usable light bulbs. Several fence-sitter,[peace-making accounts say it was a “simultaneous” invention – that Thomas Alva Edison, in America, and Joseph Wilson Swann, in England had, by some odd happenstance, both invented the light bulb at the same time in 1879, based on the discovery – perhaps from in the year 1811when Humphrey Day found that filaments empowered with electricity in a vacuum enclosure emitted light. The English Judicial Courts went along with that view when Edison started marketing a 16-watt bulb in 1879. He was forced to give half of his British operation to Swann and to market his bulbs as Swann-Edison products for years. One account I have read judges Edison to have been the inventor of the light bulb because he made one which was “practical” whereas the others provided light for a limited span of hours rather than days and nights, weeks and months.
Another “first” I have run into as I grow older is that which contends that Hannibal, from down Carthage way, when he decided to do Rome in took a herd of elephants across the Alps through Rome back door.
He did and he didn't, I find. It was not all that usual to use elephants in battle in area where the beast would be more-or-less at home but to try move any number of them through the snow packed may well have been a “first”.
The magazine illustrators and history buffs have had a field day showing the ponderous elephatanks bashing their way through snowbanks up to their tusks.
There are elephants and there are elephants and not all of them are Jumbos. Hannibal took along, it is thought, perhaps twenty small-breed North African elephants which measured, perhaps, seven feet bottom-to-top or vice versa ,which put them under even a modest Alpine snowdrift.. They did not take to the climate at all, and it is said he may have found his way to the River Po and more acceptable weather with, perhaps, half of the elephants he started with in Spain. He had cloth coverings made for them in the Alpine stay which was not a quick, over night trip. It is hard to say which appeared more pitiable ...the worn out elephants, debilitated and weary or the band of north African desert men in Hannibal's command. Either one, or both, in appearance, probably , at first sight, scared the togas off quite a few Roman citizens. I have never found any mention of Hannibal having ferried the left-over elephants back to Carthage when his Roman holiday had run its historical course.
I have wondered if bone-hunters today turn up some elephant pieces along Hannibal's trails from Spain into the edge of France, the Alpine heights and down the boot of old Italy, and wonder how they got there. Who, I wonder, to, who was first to do so? If not, there you chance to make the record books – digging up used elephant carcasses in the Alps. Be the first to do so.
A.L.M. September 25, 2004 [c629wds]
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