Dann Todd's 'Dain Bramage'^**

An Animal Meme

I've been victimized. So you might get victimized as well. You'll have to wait for the end of this post to find out. No fair peeking.

[If you don't know what this is about, there are these lists of questions running around the Internet. The general idea is that you answer the questions and then pass the answers on to a bunch of other folks. I don't usually respond to such things, but I am this time.]

An interesting animal I had

This meme comes along at a good time. I've been struggling with something for a few months.

Last spring, beloved bride and I bought a Sun Conure as an anniversary present to each other. His name was Tiki. Tiki was a ton...or tonne...of fun. He had quite a personality. It didn't take very long before he was not just willing, but anxious for one of us to take him from his cage for an adventure in the house.

Then he was gone. All it took was one moment of inattention. And I still miss him. Posting his demise to the blog isn't fun. We let him down and he had to pay the price. I'll spare you the details.

Tiki was quite the critter. We'd watch TV at night, and he'd wander from shoulder to toe while I was in the recliner. He spent a ton of time preening my cheeks. They had never been that clean.

When it was his bedtime, he'd crawl into the pocket formed by my head, shoulders, and the back of the recliner to go to sleep. The first time it happened was all the more shocking as he was standing on one of my feet, gave a squawk, ran all the way up to my shoulder, and burrowed right in. I could take it. Beloved bride couldn't. She would giggle too much.

In the morning, I'd take him in for a shower. My sister-in-law had given us a shower bar designed for birds. Tiki would just spread his wings, get all ruffled up, and wander right in. He came out soaking wet.

When I came home for lunch, I'd make a "Tiki plate" and a "Dann plate". Not that he understood the concept of cleaning his plate before coming over to help me with mine. And he was pretty clueless about my ability to take care of my own food without his assistance. Thankyouverymuch.

Probably the funniest food related story I have is the time I was pouring a bowl of cereal while Tiki was on my shoulder. He walked right down my chest and stretched out in an attempt to personally inspect/sample what I was having for breakfast. That is how we figured out that he like both corn chex and blueberries.

At any rate, this is as good a time as any to get that load off of my conscience.

An interesting animal I ate

Snails. Seriously. I didn't have any idea what to expect the first time I ate escargot. I know what snails look like alive and wasn't sure I'd like them dead, cooked in garlic butter.

As it turns out, they are pretty tasty!!

An interesting animal in the Museum

Other blogs have expanded the definition of "museum" to include "zoos". I'll stretch that just a bit to include "county fairs".

We go to the local county fair each year for three things:

• One trip through the food court.

• The cross stitch displays. [Although that has been expanded to include quilting.]

• Draft horses.

Being a larger than average critter myself, I love looking at big horses. While they have the capacity to move a large weight/mass, they also are just the gentlest of creatures. They are just magnificent creatures to look at.

An interesting thing I did with or to an animal

When my brother and I were young...a million or so years ago...we lived in a house with three bedrooms upstairs and a semi-finished basement downstairs. Part of the "semi-finished" part was a 60's-ish bar area. Our folks had carpeted that area, put a old TV down there along with an old, beat-up couch.

Come Saturday morning, my brother and I would take our dog, Shot, downstairs to watch cartoons. We would pile the couch cushions, some pillows, and a half dozen blankets on the floor and then crawl right in. Shot would find a good spot to crash.

And the three of us ate Milk Bones. Yup, dog biscuits on Saturday. A family tradition.

I grew out of it. My little brother, and Shot, never did. [sigh]

An interesting animal in its natural habitat

In keeping with the avian theme that started out this entry, Quaker [or Monk] parakeets. We have a new one in the house now, and he/she is pretty interesting. As a part of researching them to see if we really wanted to own one, we did quite a bit of reading.

[Update: I had used the phrase "he/she" because we didn't know until yesterday that he was a he. Most of this was written earlier in the week. He name is "Chilly Willy", because he shakes his tail feathers just like Chilly Willy. We just weren't sure if we had Chilly William or Chilly Whelimina.]

Quaker parakeets are the only parrot species that builds nests. All of the other species live in holes in trees.

These nests can grow to be immense structures weighing hundreds of pounds that house many breeding pairs. It isn't unusual for a colony of birds to build a single structure with multiple nests. Non-parent birds will even help out when a pair is sitting on eggs or feeding chicks.

In places like Florida, where there are wild Quaker colonies, these nests can grow in inconvenient locations; like on power poles. Some power companies respond by tearing down the nests using a variety of lethal to semi-lethal means of getting the birds to leave. Other power companies, in response to aviculturists, are experimenting with using a fiberglass structure that makes power poles an otherwise unattractive location for Quaker nests.

Some states have even banned ownership of Quaker parakeets out of concerns regarding the impact of wild flocks on farming. The theory is that wild Quaker populations will rapidly expand across a space with few natural predators. The reality is that existing Quaker colonies within the United States are pretty territorial; rarely expanding beyond a known range.

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I was tagged for the above by Sherwood. Geez, thanks, Sherwood.

Hat tip to Chris Clark for starting this whole mess.

And here is who made my list. Respond on your own blog or put your own animal stories in the comments.

Mom

Toni

Steve

Curtis C.

Dustin S. [Lil Poppa]

Denis T. [Big Poppa]

Sally/Sara

Dad

Ruth!

by Dann 

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A Twisted Meme

From a time perspective, this post will appear before the one above. But this one was really inspired by Sherwood's suggestion that you switch the word "liberal" with the word "animal". As he noted, it certainly makes the questions more interesting at the very least.

An interesting liberal I had...

[...as one of my Marines was this white guy from Oklahoma. He was obviously and always overweight. I've known skinny liberals, so his weight wasn't really the point. Just his obvious lack of concern for meeting the Corps standards.

His most interesting moment was when he had an impromptu debate with a another Marine regarding the relative value and necessity of our nation's welfare program(s). My "interesting liberal" thought that Mr. Reagan's use of the phrase "welfare queen" was a gross exaggeration. He went on to point out that his girlfriend and her daughter just couldn't survive without welfare.

His debating adversary asked if the white guy really cared about this girl and her daughter, why didn't he marry her. He also said that many of the stereotypes that were being tossed about by the administration were pretty accurate in his opinion.

The adversary? A dark green Marine [aka a black guy] that was born and raised in an impoverished inner city area of one of our major metropolitan areas. I forget if it was St. Louis or Kansas City. I do recall that we was fiercely proud of being a husband to his wife and father to his daughter.

The light green Marine didn't last long. Much to our mutual relief.]

An interesting liberal I ate

[A gentleman never kisses and tells. And although I lack the qualifications to be a gentleman, I do have dreams of being one some day.]

An interesting liberal in the Museum

[Caveman. Circa 100,000 B.C. Museum of Natural History. The one with the surprised look on his face after being clubbed by a member of a neighboring tribe that wasn't interested in a diplomatic resolution to their tribal conflict. Sometimes, non-violent resistance just doesn't work.]

An interesting thing I did with or to an liberal

[I once had an interesting exchange with several liberals via a message board that dealt mostly with the subject of economics and the relative value of socialist/communist governance. Using contemporary examples, I demonstrated that collectivism resulted in greater poverty and that freedom resulted in less poverty. This was back in the 1990s when most of the liberals I encountered felt less threatened [philosophically] and were more open to a forensic discussion of the current issues and events. I even got a couple "Gee, you're right" responses at the end. Something I don't envision happening in the near future.]

An interesting liberal in its natural habitat

[Sherwood Harrington. And I'm not being disingenuous, gratuitous, or ass-kissing-up-amous. Of the liberals I know...and I don't know him that well....that I also know are actually liberals...instead of me just assuming it.....Sherwood is the most interesting. Particularly so when in his usual environs; as a college professor. Just read his blog and you'll see what I mean.

The one local, self-proclaimed liberal that I know is an avowed socialist...and also a college professor. He is, IMHO, close-minded and unquestioning in his support for socialist ideology.

That isn't interesting.

The other person that I can think of is a former pastor at a church I formerly attended. She has since been transferred to another church; which is typical for her creed. I once questioned the inclusion of socialist ideology within the United Methodist Church's "Social Principles". She offered an unquestioning explanation that such things had to be included in order to attract people in other populations.

Sadly, my political disagreements with liberals typically result in far less thoughtful responses than my similar disagreements with conservatives - these days.]

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An After Words Of Sorts

I started this entry out primarily to be a smart ass. What I hoped would result in mostly tongue in cheek commentary turned serious in a way that I hadn't intended.

I guess I do a better job of "serious" than I do "tongue in cheek".

It takes a lot of different people to make the world go around. And sometimes, making sweeping generalizations is disingenuous and rhetorically lazy. If you made it this far, then you've wandered amidst more than a modest amount of rhetorical laziness.

Are all "liberals" close-minded, dogmatic, and boring? Not by a long shot.

Sadly, my circle of people that are actively "liberal" includes quite a few that are pretty well closed to new ideas or new approaches to old problems. Most of those folks don't read this blog, so my apologies to the non-close-minded, rarely-dogmatic, and pretty interesting "liberals" that do suffer through the the dreck that gets posted here.

So, if any of the above was modestly entertaining, I hereby invite you to tag yourself. Replace "liberal" with "conservative" ....or even "libertarian".... if that makes it easier or funnier for you. Leave it on your blog or in the comments here.

by Dann 

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