Welcome and Happy Saturday, my friends! Big plans for the weekend? Not me. Chris is drumming this morning at the Walk for Prostate Cancer, and the rest of the weekend will likely be spent just trying not to roast, as our air-conditioning is still, after a new heat pump, new thermostat, and new condensing unit, not working! And, of course Mother Nature picked this time to send temps to record highs in the 90s for a ten-day streak.
Today’s two stories are both eco-friendly … they pertain in one way or another to conservation … but they’re fun, too!
I am not a fan of McDonald’s … at least not the food. Many years ago, when Miss Goose was little, we made it a once-a-week destination, but fortunately her palate matured, and she has moved on to other favourite restaurants. But, today I must give two thumbs up to McDonalds for their environmental conscience!
Most of us are aware of the bee crisis. It is estimated that in the U.S., 44% of the bee colonies died out in 2016 alone, and since bees pollinate some 80% of the food we eat, this has serious implications for life on this planet. McDonald’s in Sweden has begun trying to save the bees in the most charming ways!
It started out with planting bee-friendly flowers around the restaurants, and hosting beehives on their roofs. But then, a few months ago, McDonald’s commissioned a professional carpenter to make the ‘smallest ever McDonald’s,” which is, in fact, a fully functioning beehive featuring a McDonald’s sign, drive-through, an outside seating area and even little advertisements on the windows!
Take a look …
But it doesn’t end there! Now, they are at it again by creating small ‘bee hotels’ on the back of their billboards. 30% of wild bees in Sweden are threatened, mainly because they do not have enough resting areas, so the company teamed up with outdoor advertising firm JCDecaux to turn the backs of its billboards into tiny “hotels.”
Granted, these are all small things, likely only to save a few thousand bees, but hey! It’s a start, right?
This week celebrated the 5th year of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, and as you might guess from the name, some of these animal pictures are quite funny! If you’re looking for your daily dose of cuteness, you’ve come to the right place!
Family Disagreement
Holly Jolly Snowy
Oh My!
Laid Back
Deer? What Deer?
Excuse me
Squirrel Wishes
Hi
Warning: Territory Marking. Follow At Your Own Risk
Monday Morning Blues
Hello
Laughing Zebra
Spaceman
Dancing … Yeah
Who Would Like A Peanut?
Indecent Proposal
To Be Or Not To Be?
Sea Otter Tickle Fight
Snarling Snappin In The Slow Lane
Hip Hop
Tom Sullum and Paul Joynson-Hicks are the founders of the Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, and in addition to having fun with it all, they have a serious purpose as well …
“Remember, we are all about conservation. We want you to take up our banner of wildlife conservation, bang the drum, beat the cymbal and make some noise, we need to spread the word – wildlife, as we know it, is in danger, all over the world and we need to do something to help save it. You can start by going and having a look at what the Born Free Foundation are doing at www.bornfree.org.uk”
And finally, it wouldn’t be Saturday Surprise without a funny animal video, now would it?
Have a wonderful weekend, my friends!
Ivanka was asked what personality traits she has inherited from her parents. She said that her mother gave her an example of how to be a powerful, successful woman, and that … wait for it … her father had given her his “moral compass”! Hoo-boy! If that one didn’t make you nearly fall out of your seat laughing, then nothing will! Moral compass??? What moral compass??? Well, folks, you’ve got to feel sorry for the little Trumps, if nothing else. Ivanka and Jared have three (this family really makes the case for forced sterilization): Arabella Rose, Joseph Frederick, and Theodore James. See, they cannot even give the poor kids simple names … well, at least their last name isn’t Trump, though I’m not sure ‘Kushner’ is any more respectable.
On November 10, 1975 a crew of 29 died when the 729-foot ore carrier SS Edmund Fitzgerald foundered in 80 mile-an-hour winds and blinding snow squalls with wave heights up to 25 feet on Lake Superior. So … why did Lightfoot write a song about it?
“The Edmund Fitzgerald really seemed to go unnoticed at that time, anything I’d seen in the newspapers or magazines were very short, brief articles, and I felt I would like to expand upon the story of the sinking of the ship itself. And it was quite an undertaking to do that. I went and bought all of the old newspapers, got everything in chronological order, and went ahead and did it because I already had a melody in my mind and it was from an old Irish dirge that I heard when I was about three and a half years old. I think it was one of the first pieces of music that registered to me as being a piece of music. That’s where the melody comes from, from an old Irish folk song.”
The first, of course, was Mike Flynn who took up his position on the day of Trump’s inauguration, 20 January 2017, and lasted exactly 24 days, resigning after information surfaced that he had misled the FBI about the nature and content of his communications with Russian Ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.
The second was General Herbert Raymond (H.R.) McMaster, who took office on 20 February 2017, just one week after Flynn’s resignation, and he lasted an entire 413 days, until 09 April 2018! McMaster either resigned or was fired by Trump and his imminent departure announced by Twitter 18 days before his departure date. The issue between McMaster and Trump was McMaster’s disagreement about foreign policy decisions, particularly those involving Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
And then, on April 9th last year, came John Bolton, the one who has had itchy fingers to bomb Iran for decades. Bolton lasted 499 days, until Monday when he either tendered his resignation, or Trump tendered his bootheel. Bolton was a war hawk who, given a choice would prefer settling differences by war rather than diplomacy. He had long advocated for regime change in Iran, Syria, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Yemen and North Korea. He supported the Iraq war, supported withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, and was a staunch critic of President Obama.
So, what comes next. Trump says he will announce his new choice next week, but meanwhile, the position will be filled by the Deputy National Security Advisor, Charles Kupperman. Kupperman came on board 11 January 2018 and is said to be a war hawk very similar to Bolton. His tenure is likely to be short-lived.
You all know how dominoes work, right? You knock the first one over and all the rest fall one-by-one. Well, this story reminds me of dominoes, for one person’s good deed led to another and another and pretty soon, what started as one good deed ended up saving six lives and bringing twelve people together in a bond that … well, see for yourself. This story, by the way, came to me courtesy of Scott Lawlor, aka sklawlor … thank you, Scott!
Though most of these people were strangers, they forged a fast and unique bond. I have always said that the most important thing we can give to others is to give of ourselves, but when I said it, I was thinking of our time. This … this is truly an example of ‘giving of yourself’, don’t you think?
Again … not a huge thing, but … I bet to the woman and her three children it was.
Eighteen years ago. It seems so much longer … another lifetime. And yet … and yet, it seems like such a short time ago. I remember the morning well. A key staff member was on vacation and I had to cover, so I arrived at work well before dawn, but I stepped outside sometime between 8:30 and 9:00 for a smoke break. The sky was the bluest I could recall ever seeing it and I thought it must be the most perfect day ever. Within a half-hour, I would be left in tears, cursing the day, hoping to awaken from this nightmare.
I went back inside from my smoke-break, and an employee, Susie, came up to me and asked if I had heard about the plane that crashed into the World Trade Center. If the building I worked in then had not since been demolished, I could show you the exact tile I was standing on at that moment, just as I could tell you that when we received news of the assassination of JFK, I was at home plate with bat in hand, waiting for the pitch that would never come. Just as my grandfather often told exactly where he was and what he was doing when the news of the attack on Pearl Harbour came over ‘the wireless’. You think it is a literary trick when an author says “time stood still”? Well, I can tell you … for me, time did stand still, as I must have also. I seemed to have lost all feeling, all senses shut down … I could not hear nor see. After that, it all blurs into a series of news updates … a 2nd plane, then the Pentagon, then a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, the name Usama bin Laden. A gathering in the cafeteria, a television rolled into another room where we all gathered. Financial statements, payroll, printing presses and the like forgotten for the moment. Tearful phone calls home to the girls. Then day after day, glued to the television every waking moment. In my household, we had a then-6-year-old and finally had to turn to Nickelodeon, but the images remained in our eyelids, in our hearts, in our souls. And the tears never stopped.
Today we mark the 18th memorial of that awful day. We do so in many ways, but the saddest thing for me is that we did not learn the lessons we needed to learn from that tragedy. Today, our nation is more divided than ever. In the days and weeks that followed what would become known simply as 9/11, it seemed we were on the right path. People from all over the nation and Canada traveled to Ground Zero to help with search and rescue, and eventually cleanup operations. Shopkeepers gave out free food and water. People helped neighbors, friends and strangers. We all empathized with each other, treated each other a little kinder, gave a bit more freely of our hugs and kind words.
One Wal-Mart, in conjunction with Coca-Cola, erected a display to “commemorate” the 9/11 anniversary. It was taken down after much criticism. And other companies have also tried to use 9/11 for sales and profit. It is not a commercial holiday. We do not celebrate with hot dogs and beer. It is a day of national mourning. It is a day of solemnity. Commercialism has no place on this day, no right to use it as a gimmick. Can you imagine Pearl Harbor, or the assassination of President John F. Kennedy being commercialized? There was one commercial ad that truly was a tribute to the day. It aired only once, in 2002. I still find it to be a beautiful tribute and it still brings tears. Please take just one minute to watch it.
