Today’s Boston Metro (PDF), always your best source for animal news, had a brilliant picture of an infant cotton-top tamarin chewing on a branch at the Museum of Science. Fact: Did you know that cotton-top tamarins lick leaves wet with rain or morning dew to obtain moisture to avoid exposing themselves to predators? Opinion: I […]

D’s father went to the hospital this morning to have the old stent removed and a new one inserted. I hope this won’t result in his being hospitalized for several days again. D. just called to say that his flight was cancelled and he’s stuck at BWI airport.
Nothing much else to report about the weekend, […]

If I had one of those fey mood indicators, it would have to say “self-pitying crankypants.” Without going into too much detail, I haven’t had a visit from my Aunt Ruby in more than six weeks, and let’s just say, it’s bothering me quite a bit. It’s not unheard-of for me to have such a […]

. . . is “arseverse”: “A pretended spell written upon the door of a house to keep it from burning,” saith the good Thomas Wright 1857.
This raises questions: why “pretended” — were there these shady businessfolk who bilked the kindly but ignorant yeomen out of a few farthings with fake protection spells? Does the word […]

Finally got our rug situation straightened out, mostly — laid the Oriental rug D’s folks gave us in the living room and put the non-skiddy-pad thing under the dining room rug. Also managed to get some serious under-the-sofa and in-dark-corners cleaning done while we were at it. It looks really great — now if only […]