Here in the Chicago area, the skies are fuzzy (not clear blue) and over the past few days I’ve been a marked increase in allergy-related crap (coughing, eyes itching and watering and by 10:00 at night, ready for every nasal remedy ever invented). These maps tell me why.
Excerpt:
The National Weather Service says smoke from the raging fires out West has impacted cities thousands of miles away — and the atmosphere above them. Residents in states like Missouri, Ohio, Mississippi, Virginia and even New York and Massachusetts can see the smoke manifest itself through grey skies and vibrant sunsets, the National Weather Service says. And those in fewer states throughout the Midwest, South and East Coast are breathing in air that has been impacted by the smoke as well.
But how exactly does smoke travel this far? Andy Edman, chief of the science technology infusion division at the National Weather Service, says small particles of smoke that come from the fires can stay in the air and move through the Earth’s atmosphere — all the way to the East Coast. The smoke sits more than a mile above the Earth’s surface, but can move down through strong winds called jet streams and have an impact on air quality.
The National Weather Service has two relevant maps that explores the issue. One shows the path of “vertically integrated smoke” — that is, the smoke that sits far above Earth’s surface in the atmosphere and impacts the sky you see above you.
That booze bill is from a bit later, after they started paying George a regular salary rather than “oh, just cover my expenses and we’ll be good!”. But, still a decent example of how that expense account ate up around 2% of the new country’s GDP a few years earlier.
(Kitman’s book on Open Library. I haven’t read it yet, but looks interesting.)
Everyone in our family has a musical talent which we are very proud of. However, we were highly disappointed in our son Mario who hadn’t inherited a good ear for music and is awful in playing the instrument he chose. He hadn’t inherited my wife’s wonderful voice as well. He sings horribly. But his teacher has discovered that he’s a mathematical genius. We thank the Virgin of San Juan for our son has a talent.
There’s a story Grandpa used to tell by the fire about a Lady who was engaged to be married to a very rich man. He’d had many wives before, it was said, but they’d all vanished. This caused the Lady some concern, but her parents just saw his money and sent her off to be wed, and she being in the sort of predicament she was, resolved to find her own way through it.
So she moved into his house on a far-away island away from her family, with her solitary trunk, and look upon the wide expanse of the huge estate that stood, colossal and empty except for him and her and their silent gray-faced servants. The man she married was huge and had a long black beard take devoured most of he face, and beady, dark eyes that burned in his wide, dark sockets.
No one knew how he’d come upon his fortune, but he had many ships and was often away, and he said he was just as happy to leave her be, that his main interest was in travel, but he needed someone to tend to his home.The grey-faced servants moved her one solitary trunk into her cavernous bedroom and he bent before the bed and kissed her small hand and he kissed her small foot and told her she could have anything she wanted in all the world if she would simply agree to stay here.
“You may go into any room in the house, have anything it is that you wish to have, build anything my fortune can build you, and do whatever you wish with my fortune to please you. You may move what you wish moved, and all I ask in return is that you do not use this key. All I wish is that you do go into the room at the bottom of the tower, at the end of the hall, it is my private sanctuary and it is all I love besides travel. This is all I ask of you,” he said, and his eyes gleamed too hot and he held her small hand in his large paw and stared too closely at her.
“Promise me this and you may do what you wish with all I otherwise possess.”
“I do promise,” she said. He kissed her small foot and he kissed her small hand and the very next day sailed out into the world, waving goodbye and leaving her all alone in the wide, empty house with only grey-faced servant silently stepping around her and saying no words.
She promptly removed it from the ring and threw the heavy too-cold key into the ocean. She reviewed her husband’s books and accounts and began to neaten the household, paying the servants more and renovating their quarters until they were friendly and bright eyed and she opened up the extra, cavernously echoing chambers of the house to their families so the hallways rang with voices.
She balanced her husband’s financial empire, sending missives and inquires to various branches, and by the time he returned from his travels he looked bewildered that she was still there and all she had done, but conceded that she had followed the letter of their agreement.
“But what was the room then, Grandpa?”
“Who cares? If somebody tries to lead you into a trap, don’t follow them, and if you promise not do something, then don’t do it,” Grandpa had said, offering me a perfectly toasted marshmallow.
I prefer this ending
Holy shit, this makes me so uncomfortable. Knowing in the original stories that the bodies of his previous wives (in some versions the sisters of this woman) are mutilated in pieces in this room makes this version frankly detestable to me.
Think about it. Someone in power over her (parents) hand her to someone who is widely regarded to be a dangerous individual (rich husband from a far away place that she’d never be able to escape without help). She is now trapped under his hand. He gives her permission to do whatever she wants (in a scenario where the slightest misstep could still end up with her dead because he has complete control over her). As a test he hands her the key to truth and all she needs to bring him to justice, knowing that once she’s seen the bodies she won’t be able to hide it.
In the original story she gets help. She stops the monster. Some versions even bring her dead sisters back to life after she stitches their mutilated bodies back together. This version though?
Nope! Forget that! Forget truth! What’s truth among spouses? What’s truth to someone who’s property? Don’t question! Don’t poke around! It doesn’t matter if the corpses of a dozen women are in the basement, as long as he doesn’t get mad and chop you to bits, it’s fine!
The grandfather’s message is to always listen to people in authority over you, even if you’re pretty damned sure that they are a murderer. Even if they are doing monstrous things. Sure, you can try to work behind the scenes to make things a little better for a few people, but you should never go against the person committing atrocities.
There are plenty of fairy tales worth reinterpreting in different ways, but Bluebeard is one of the few well enough known that’s out there that tells women to be careful, to pay attention, to take care of themselves, and to do the right thing (and doesn’t assume that doing what her forced husband wants is actually the right thing). This is not the story we should be reinterpreting to say obedience and submission are the right thing to do. Not when dead women are under your feet.
This hellgrammite showed up at work today.
Thought I’d share with you all.
Sweet dreams everybody. 😎😎
I love the interlaced pattern in the wings of the Eastern dobsonfly (Corydalus cornutus), which is the adult form of the more familiar hellgrammite. This is the female. The male possesses thin, elongated mandibles that are mainly used for jousting with other males and for courtship of the female. The female’s mandibles, on the other hand, are fully functional and capable of delivering one hell of a painful bite if she’s threatened (don’t ask me how I know). Dobsonflies aren’t commonly seen because they have very short lifespans (about a week or less after emerging from the pupal stage). Their main goal is to mate and lay eggs. Although they appear somewhat ominous (but are actually quite harmless unless mishandled), they are one of nature’s foremost barometers of a healthy ecosystem – they are pollution-intolerant, and their presence indicates a healthy stream or river nearby.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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