Old Posts Addenda (5)

 A Baker's Half-dozen 
   Here are some "Breaking News" items relating to subjects already covered in MM. 

1. A Big Bird Kill
   There is a flock of posts in MM relating to birds of various kinds and a few have been devoted to the losses in the avian world. In "Passenger Pigeons", their disappearance was lamented and a description of a large flock over the Bruce Peninsula long ago is provided. Readers of The Times (of London) used to write letters to that paper about the spotting of the first cuckoo in the spring. Now they are rarely seen and the song of the nightingale seldom heard ("Books of The Times.") 
   Soon it is the murres we will be missing.
"Scientists Just Confirmed the Largest Bird-killing Event in Modern History: A Marine Heat Wave in the Pacific Ocean That Began a Decade ago Killed some 4 Million Common Murres in Alaska, Researchers say," Joshua Partlow, The Washington Post, Dec. 12, 2024.
"It would take years of study to confirm they had witnessed the largest die-off of any bird species ever recorded in the modern era, according to new research published in the journal Science on Thursday.... The killing was an order of magnitude larger, she said, than the hundreds of thousands of murres that perished in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.“We’ve had lots of long-term declines that have been observed in wildlife,” she said. “But what’s really different here — that we haven’t seen before — is this really swift catastrophe where in one year we have half the population of this really abundant seabird just wiped out.”

2. What Will Eat the Dead Buzzards?
   The "Vanishing Vultures" in India that were written about in MM in 2017 are in the news again. See:
"The Hidden Value of Vultures: "Researchers believe a massive die-off of the birds led to over 100,000 additional human deaths per year in India, by Ian Rose, The Washington Post, September 14, 2024 and
"How a Crisis for Vultures Led to a Human Disaster: Half a Million Deaths The birds were accidentally poisoned in India. New research on what happened next shows how wildlife collapse can be deadly for people," Catrin Eihorn, NYT, July 29, 2024.
   "Now, economists have put an excruciating figure on just how vital they can be: The sudden near-disappearance of vultures in India about two decades ago led to more than half a million excess human deaths over five years, according to a forthcoming study in the American Economic Review."
  Rotting livestock carcasses, no longer picked to the bones by vultures, polluted waterways and fed an increase in feral dogs, which can carry rabies. It was “a really huge negative sanitation shock,” said Anant Sudarshan, one of the study’s authors and an economics professor at the University of Warwick in England...."
"The findings reveal the unintended consequences that can occur from the collapse of wildlife, especially animals known as keystone species for the outsize roles they play in their ecosystems. Increasingly, economists are seeking to measure such impacts."

    The buzzards are also disappearing in other places. 
“To Save a Scavenger: Why Vultures Need Our Protection," Mary Cunningham, Columbia Magazine, Spring/Summer 2024.
   "Vultures, known (and notorious) for their penchant for rotting flesh, have experienced major population decline over the last few decades, due in large part to poisoning, explains Kendall. Hunters often put pesticides on carcasses to kill the scavengers, making it harder for law enforcement to detect illegal poaching (“circling vultures can indicate the presence of a large carcass and therefore help rangers find dead elephants”). Additionally, farmers sometimes use poison to retaliate against predators that kill their livestock. “When the vultures feed on the bodies, they die within a few hours,” says Kendall, adding that vultures are also sometimes killed by superstitious locals who see them as bad omens."

3. Too Many Crows: The Rochester Roost
   A few years ago you were told about the very large number of crows in Burnaby and when we were in Vancouver recently we saw them at dusk everyday flying over and heading there,(see "A Murder of Crows".) "The Purple Martin Problem" in Nashville was noticed more recently and now there is a big murder of crows close by in upstate New York.
  "Where It Isn’t Christmas Until the City Shoots Lasers at 20,000 Crows: In Rochester, N.Y., every year in early December thousands of crows descend on the city, which tries to shoo them away with loud noises and bright lights," David Andreatta, NYT, Dec. 14, 2024.
  "In Rochester, N.Y., there are telltale signs that the holiday season is underway.Santa’s workshop opens at the outdoor ice rink downtown. There is the lighting of the pyramid of kegs at the local brewery. Productions of “A Christmas Carol” and “The Nutcracker” begin.Then there are the tens of thousands of crows that descend on the city every day at dusk in early December, and the fireworks and lasers that are deployed to drive them away.City officials and wildlife experts estimate upward of 20,000 crows roost downtown nightly.“It’s like you’re in ‘The Birds,’” said Rachel Kudiba, referring to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film about birds on a murderous rampage."

4. Line 5
   Line 5 is that pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac where we hope it does not rupture. This is about Line 6 which just did. Here is the story:
"Enbridge Pipeline Spills 260,000 litres of oil in Wisconsin," A.P., Dec.14, 2024.
   "Line 6 is a 748.3-kilometre pipeline carrying crude oil from Superior, Wisconsin, to a terminal near Griffith, Indiana, according to a company map. Critics noted the spill was discovered during the same week that Wisconsin regulators approved the first permits for Enbridge’s plan to move the aging Line 5 pipeline around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa reservation. Opponents said it would still threaten the region’s watershed and perpetuate the use of fossil fuels." 
For Line 5 in MM: see, e.g. "Line 5" and "Line 5 Again."

5. "I'll Bet Ya!"
   I am willing to bet the issue of gambling will soon be as big as the debts being accrued. Among the many posts about betting in MM, this one discussed the large wagers placed by someone named "DRAKE" and Phil Mickleson,(see, "ON Betting.") They are not the only one making big bets.
"Bettor Places Largest NFL Wager of the Year: $3.1Million on the Eagles-Panthers Game," Ben Fawkes, Dec.7, The Athletic. 
On Thursday afternoon, Circa Sports reported taking a $3.1 million wager on the Eagles moneyline (ML) against the Carolina Panthers. The wager was placed at -700 odds, meaning the bettor will win roughly $442,850 if the Eagles win the game straight up...."
He won, by the way: #3.1 Million Bet on Eagles Wins After Panthers' Dropped Pass," David Purdum, ESPN, Dec.8, 2024.

Cathal Kelly is the best reason to get a subscription to the Globe and Mail and he picked Gambling Promotors as major sports villains this year: "Sporting Heroes and Villains From 2024," Dec. 25, 2024:
"Gambling promoters: Gambling is legal. Once upon a time, so was drinking and driving.
Using that fig leaf, Canada’s broadcasts and pages are full of people you recognize encouraging fellow citizens with far less than them to blow their rent money betting the under.
Driven by the NHL and its flunkies in the sports media, it is an unalloyed display of amoral greed. Some day, it will be seen as a national embarrassment. Until then, we will continue doing the Canadian thing by pretending that because it doesn’t affect anybody we know, it’s not happening."

Thomas's "The Cotton Bowl" (2011)

6. A Black Sculpture By a Black Sculptor
   In a post about Hank Willis Thomas you learned about a work of his - which was inspired by an event in the 1960s on the Eastern Shore of Maryland -  now resides in a Vancouver back yard. He continues to sculpt and is doing well. For the post see: "A Black Sculpture.")
"Hank Willis Thomas Sees What America Can't Say: In His Art About Race and Freedom, He Asks Us to Look Closer, and Think Twice," Robin Givhan,The Washington Post, Aug. 16, 2024.
"Over the years, Thomas has blossomed into a public artist. His large-scale sculptures, often inspired by photographs, are now part of landscapes across the country. [and even in Canada.]

7. More Pictures From An Institution
   This title was borrowed from Randall Jarrell and I have used it before. It is found in a post about "Jasper Cropsey" and the controversy that ensued when one of his paintings was sold by the University of Western Ontario. A similar controversy is unfolding in Indiana where, you may be surprised to learn, Valparaiso University is located. 
  UWO needed money back in 1980, just as Valparaiso does now. That University came up with a plan to sell some paintings so new dormitories could be built. The justification for selling the paintings needed a legal basis and the University devised a way of characterizing the paintings so they could be sold without violating the terms of the donation. The former director of the Museum which held the paintings said, “I think it was a clever way of trying to pick at the validity of the paintings, and it was done because they thought they wouldn’t have to answer to anyone but the judge..." 
   This controversy needs more space than can be utilized here. You can learn about the "Cropsey Controversy" at UWO by looking at my earlier post. As well, there was a more recent controversy when the Western History Department had to come up with a way to keep a donor's money, while dropping the donor's name (see "Western and the Hilborn Issue.") For the issue in Indiana, see this article:
"To Sell Prized Paintings, a University Proclaims They’re Not 'Conservative': ‘Valparaiso University is arguing it should never have acquired two paintings, including a Georgia O’Keeffe, in the 1960s. It hopes to sell them to pay for dorm renovations," Annie Agular, NYT, July 19, 2024.
   "An Indiana judge is facing that very question as Valparaiso University contends that it should be able to sell high-value paintings it owns, including a Georgia O’Keeffe landscape of the New Mexico desert, in order to finance a renovation of freshman dormitories.When the private, nonprofit university announced its plan last year, it said the sale was necessary because enrollment had declined, which has also prompted the school to cut some programs and positions. After opposition to the sale of the art that had long hung in its on-campus museum, the college is now arguing before a court that selling two of the paintings is justified because they should never have been acquired in the first place."
  By the way, perhaps the committee that purchased the paintings now up for sale should be re-constituted to handle Valparaiso's investment portfolio:
 The university’s petition says the committee bought the O’Keeffe in 1962 for $5,700 and the Hassam in 1967 for $9,000. “Rust Red Hills” renders New Mexico mountains in draping, muscular forms, and “The Silver Veil and the Golden Gate” explodes a pre-bridge San Francisco Bay into an impressionistic light-dappled array.
   Those modernist American landscapes are now the most valuable works in the Brauer’s collection. Appraisals commissioned by the university estimated fair market values of $10.5 million to $15 million for the O’Keeffe and $1 million to $3.5 million for the Hassam. (The Church is valued at $1 million to $3 million.)

Post Script: 
   The Cropsey post also contains some information about another art controversy at Fisk University and other collections at Dubuque and Colby. Given that such controversies are likely to increase as university budgets decline, the link to the Task Force For the Protection of University Collections --Tookit provided in that post and again above, could be useful. 

The Bonus: 
  Art collections at universities can be valuable resources for the surrounding community as well. For some of the better ones see this article:
"The Best College Art Museums in America: The Post's Art Critics Pick Their Favorite Museums at Colleges and Universities Across the U.S.", The Washington Post, Oct. 24, 2024.
Here they are:
Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University Harvard Art Museums RISD Museum Yale University Art Gallery Those who commented on the article mentioned, Smith College, the Stanley Museum of Art at Iowa and the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame. Several mentioned that Princeton was constructing a major new one.    

A Gathering of Kestertons

   I just indicated in my last post, which was my first one in a while, that I have had trouble producing one every day. If I had any readers and they showed up daily they would be disappointed that the blog remained unchanged and soon would stop coming.  I thought that perhaps what I could do to attract an audience of loyal, returning readers is grab short, catchy, bizarre, humorous, happy, or sad items and post them while I worked on creating something original.  When I did so, I would group them under the clever title of,  "A Gathering of Kestertons" so readers would know what to expect and anticipate that the content would be more enjoyable and interesting than something manufactured by the usual author of Mulcahy's Miscellany.

Michael Kesterton and "Social Studies"

   "Gathering" is the collective noun I chose and you know all about them because you have read "A Murder of Crows." "Kesterton" you may not immediately recognize, but if I mention the Globe and Mail column, "Social Studies: A Daily Miscellany of Information", you may recall that he was the compiler of it. It was the first page of the paper which most of us turned to during the period from 1990 to 2013. Short facts, figures and tidbits were offered along with a "Thought du jour." Surely a similar approach by me would lead to a consistent increase in the imaginary Ipsos blogging ratings. 

   After writing all of that, I have decided against proceeding with this project and the first "Gathering of Kestertons", will be the last.  Although Mr. Kesterton is deceased, I now realize it is  inappropriate of me to associate his name with MM, since he would gain little and such an association could actually sully his reputation. As well, it is unfair because Mr. Kesterton would have had to do far more work for most of the period during which he gathered material. Work involving things like reference books, trips to the library and reading extensively, none of which one needs now to do. The Internet has made gathering much easier and the market is already crowded with publications offering listicles and trivia stolen from other publications. Plus, it is so easy I would be inclined to slack off and offer only the material of others and never do any heavy lifting myself.  But, before I go, I might as well say a little more about Mr. Kesterton and his "Social Studies," and provide a few of his examples and, perhaps a some of the ones I would have offered had I proceeded with "A Gathering of Kestertons."

   Mr. Kesterton passed away late in 2018 and Elizabeth Renzetti of the G&M notes that: 
"Mr. Kesterton, who died on Dec. 5 at the age of 72, was the shy, quick-witted writer behind one of The Globe and Mail’s most popular features. By the time Social Studies ended on Canada Day, 2013, Mr. Kesterton had compiled more than three kilometres of arcana, world history, scientific breakthroughs, anniversaries and odd news, such as the time Sophia Loren apprehended a handbag thief."

   The first "Social Studies" I have found is from July 4, 1990 and the items in it are topical ones even for our times. Under the subject of "Waste", figures are given for how much of it is being sent by us to countries in the Third World and how much more Toronto wants to have taken by truck into the third world hinterlands elsewhere in the province. Texans back then were thinking just like Texans now. Under the title "Texas Chainsaw Reasoning" a regulatory official did not think it terribly important to control the sale of the toxic chemical chlordane: "Sure, it's going to kill a lot of people. But they may be dying of something else anyway." Many interesting facts are provided and the tabloids can always be counted upon for attention-grabbing headlines: "Dog Lands Plane After Pilot Has Heart Attack" and "Strange Cult Worships Studebakers.'

   The last "Social Studies" is found on July 1, 2013 and among the facts included are some about the column. It began on June 12, 1990 and "Social Studies" was only to be a temporary title. The difference between "Geeks" and "Nerds" is explained and the last "Thought du jour" was thought by Sir Wilfred Laurier and it still has some relevance for our time - "Canada is free and freedom is nationality."

   I have offered snippets, quotes of the day, headlines of the week, factlets and even the odd apercu, when I didn't have much myself to say and I will likely keep doing so, but I won't gather them under the name of the late Mr. Kesterton.  Here are a few for now.

Funny Quotes: 

P.J. O'Rourke just died and left us some humorous ones: On leaving Maoism behind:
“But I couldn’t stay a Maoist forever,” he wrote. “I got too fat to wear bell-bottoms. And I realized that communism meant giving my golf clubs to a family in Zaire.”
About the difference between "Democrats' and "Republicans" - “The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer and remove the crab grass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then get elected and prove it.”

Funny Names:

There were many in the old Wild West and Bret Harte says nicknames were the beginning of a "rude heraldry." Here are some: Antelope Jack; Albuquerque Alice; Hog-Eyed Nellie; Gunny Sack Bill; Pie Biter Baker; Cemetery Sam; Peckerwood Pete; Catacorners Ketchum, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody. Bartholomew Masterson, thought it wise to change his name to "Bat." He was born in Quebec and if you read the Wikipedia entry for him you will see that he was a very interesting character. For more nicknames: "Trailing the Alias," Waldo Koop, The American West, Jan./Feb. 1977.

Sad Place Names: 

Point No Point, Washington; Dismal, North Carolina; Cape Disappointment, Washington; Little Hope, Texas; Boring, Maryland; Misery Bay, Michigan; Tombstone, Arizona; Dead Horse Bay, New York; Murder Island, Nova Scotia. "14 of the Most Depressing Place Names in North America," Bess Lovejoy, Mental Floss, May 11, 2015.

On Somnambulism:

This story was reported by CP back in July, 1979: (Barrie)- "A man wearing only a pyjama top was found walking along a highway early Wednesday about five kilometres from the motel where he was staying. Provincial police, who picked up the man after a call from a person who found him, said he was sleep-walking. The man was in good shape except for sore feet, police said. They did not identify the man, but said he was from the London-Windsor area." 

On Statues:

Many are now being torn down and in this Reuters story from 1989 we can learn how to profit from such destruction:
"Budapest: Right Hand Man: A museum here had paid 500 (pounds) for the right hand of Stalin which was part of the huge Stalin monument toppled in the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. It was sold by the widow of a rector who had it in his Budapest garden as a decoration.
  The Stalin statue, which was 28 metres high, was torn down during the night of 23 October 1965. The fragments were collected as souvenirs. The museum intends to show the right hand in an exhibition next year on the epoch of Hungarian Stalinism."

The Price for a Tongass Tree:

A 180 foot tall Sitka spruce is standing (for now) in the Tongass National Forest where it has been standing for a long time. Here is what it is likely to be worth:
"Even when the top and branches are lopped off, a tree this size would yield at least 6,000 board feet of lumber, said industry consultant Catherine Mater, who assessed the spruce’s potential market value for The Washington Post. It would fetch around $17,500 on the open market."

Another Murder of Crows:     

Mentioned above and written about before, the murder of crows in Burnaby has a rival murder far to the south in Sunnyvale, California. See for proof: "A California City Overrun With Crows Turns to Lasers and a Boombox to Scare Them Away: City employees will spend an hour every night shining green lasers and playing corvid distress calls to humanely harass the birds into leaving, Margaret Osborne, Smithsonian Magazine, Jan. 20, 2022. And: "A California City Is Overrun by Crows. Could a Laser Be the Answer? In a move befitting its Silicon Valley setting, the city of Sunnyvale, Calif., will aim a laser at 1,000 birds that have overwhelmed the downtown area during the pandemic," Alyssa Lukpat, NYT, Jan. 17, 2022

A Murder of Crows

 

The Crows of Vancouver

   We have children living in Vancouver and when visiting them we always notice the crows. They are seen on the lawns and the picture above taken at one son's house, could have been duplicated at the other's. They are even more noticeable at the end of the day when thousands of them, like many other commuters, head for the suburbs. In the crows'  case, the destination is an office park in Burnaby where they will perch and poop. 

   We have been unable to visit because of the pandemic and when we were last there we had to leave prematurely because of the pandemic. I thought of the crows because of a recent article profiling Mr. Fidel Eligan, an immigrant from the Philippines, whose job it is to clean up after the crows. He is a fine fellow who gets up very early to ride his bike to Burnaby where, "the slight senior dons a hazmat suit, straps a 15-kilogram tank to his wiry back and spends hours spraying the lobbies, hallways and staircases his company is subcontracted to clean." Because of the pandemic, Mr. Eligan has been unable to visit his family back in the Philippines so "he has opted to take on an overtime shift disinfecting the buildings in the same office park each weekend." He remarks that "Maybe no crow, maybe me, no work," he says with a chuckle on a recent morning. "I enjoy the crows." The last sentence in the article is this one: "I'm always happy," he says of his life." We should all be so happy. 

   You may have read the article and know about the crows of Vancouver. If not, I will provide some good sources about them below. The subject will now change to the title - The Murder of Crows.

Nouns of Assemblage or Terms of Venery

   Oddly enough, there is not one term to refer to for a collection or group of things. The two above are often used along with, "Nouns of Multitude", "Group Terms" or "Collective Nouns", the last of which also has a more specific grammatical meaning. The need for such terms was noticed long ago and many of them were developed by those out hunting who required words for their descriptions. What does one call a large ???? of pheasants. That is how 'murder' came to be applied to crows, 'bouquet' to pheasants and 'skulk' to foxes. To learn more about all of this, turn to An Exaltation of Larks or, The Venereal Game by James Lipton. Venereal terms in this instance, generally refer to hunting and not what you are thinking. 

   Apart from the real 'nouns of assemblage', etc., there are imaginary ones invented by people such as you. The ones related to lawyers are likely to be unprintable in this family-friendly blog, but here are a few for those in the medical profession: "A Brace of Orthopedists", "A Rash of Dermatologists", "A Pile of Proctologists", and "A Smear of Gynecologists". One could go on, for example: "A Flush of Plumbers," "A Piddle of Puppies," "A Wince of Dentists" or A Column of Accountants." Assemble your own or invite a 'Batch of Buddies' or 'Circle of Crones' over to play a game which involves the creation of colourful venereal terms. 

Sources:

   For the article about Mr. Eligan and the Burnaby crows see: "How Do You Clean Up After a Murder of Crows," Mike Hager, The Globe and Mail, April, 5, 2021. A related video is found on YouTube.

   For additional information about the Vancouver roosts see:

"Crows of Vancouver: The Middle Way Between Biophobia and Biophilia," Christine Thuring. 

"Here's Where the Crows of Vancouver End Up Roosting Every Night," Bob Kronbauer.
The UBC Botanical Garden reveals "Why Are Crows Ruining my Lawn?"

   There are also roosts closer to home. For example:

"Ontario Towns Caw Over Noisy Crows," CBC.

"A Night Spent With Woodstock's Crow Man," Chatham Daily News, Tara Bowie.

It's Not Just Your Imagination: Why a Murder of 10,000 Crows Takes Over Ottawa in the Winter," PostMedia News, Jan.19, 2017.

  The always interesting Atlas Obscura contains a good piece: "An Ostentation of Peacocks, and Other Flowery Ways Medieval Hunters Grouped Birds," Eric Grundhauser, Nov. 24, 2015. 

   For another good article, with pictures and examples: "Collective Nouns for Birds: Why We Call It a Murder of Crows, Murmuration of Starlings and a Conspiracy of Ravens?" Paula Lester, Country Life, Jan. 13, 2020. 

For books, in addition to An Exaltation of Larks see:

A Conspiracy of Ravens: A Compendium of Collective Nouns for Birds, Bill Odie.

A Charm of Goldfinches and Other Wild Gatherings: Quirky Collective Nouns of the Animal Kingdom, Matt Sewell.

A Murmuration of Starlings, Steve Palin.

and

 A Barrel of Monkeys: A Compendium of Collective Nouns For Animals. (Like The Conspiracy of Ravens, this one was assembled by the Bodleian Library.)