Stacy Horn's Blog, page 191

Nasa’s Curiosity Lands Successfully!

I fell asleep but miraculously woke up a couple of minutes before Curiosity landed on Mars. I got to watch all the Nasa people watching so tensely and then springing up like Olympians who had just won a gold medal, while breaking a world record at the same time. Except it was a room full of people all winning gold medals and breaking world records at once, it was a joy to watch. Yay Nasa!! I hope we learn a lot.

As any pet owner knows, as long as they’re still eating all is not lost. Buddy’s diarrhea has returned so I’ve been tinkering with his meds and worrying, worrying, worrying. I do that a lot, write words three times for emphasis. I should probably stop that. Anyway, Buddy seems okay otherwise, and he’s eating, so I should probably stop worrying too.

Sometimes Insomnia is a Feature Not a Bug

I forgot to mention, don’t miss the landing of Nasa’s Curiosity Mars Rover, which is going to be streaming live here, although it will probably be on tv all over the place too. The last I read they’re expecting it to land around 1:30 a.m. est.

Okay, back to goof-off-age. You know, I hate when the cats look up suddenly like this. I’m always sure it’s going to either be a tarantula or one of those flying waterbug/cockroach things,

Oh For the Love of God

Wisconsin. And Sikhs, of all people. I don’t know a lot about them but a year or two ago something inspired me to read about them. I just remember a lot of peace and love, and like Catholics, a strong focus on service. Oh wow, reading the Wikipedia entry now. “Protecting the religious and political rights of all people and preventing discrimination is an integral part of the Sikh faith.” Yeah, I can see why someone would want to shoot them.

Can we talk about a little gun control, now??

I’ve been goofing off. That’s the Bachelor Pad below. I was watching that earlier. Currently, I’m going back and forth between Dr. Who and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and later it will be Olympics, Olympics, Olympics. That is my Sunday. Because I worked really hard yesterday.

We Need a 24/7 Dance TV Channel

Here’s an amazing dance routine that came at the end of a Bunheads episode. I’ve watched it over and over. Watch it. Isn’t it mesmerizing? Between this and So You Think You Can Dance and some great dancing on Glee (and other shows) I got the idea: we need a 24/7 dance channel.

Everyone and all groups could participate—ballet companies, dance companies, hip hop dancers, all street dancers, ballroom, high school groups, children. There could be contests, and the dance equivalent of open mike night: Open Dance Night. I’m sure there are tons of archival footage of dance over the years (and since we’ve had cameras to film dancers). So we could have a Dance History show. And a famous movie dance routines show, and a tv dance routines over the years show. Oh, and tv dance classes! Seriously, I’m sure I could come up with an idea for show a minute. It could be great!!

I’ve been meaning to post this link. AMC was at war with … some cable provider, I forget who, and so they let some zombies loose in New York City and filmed it. Very funny. The make up and zombie-attitude is so good I would have screamed.

There’s been way too many lost pets posters lately. Dogs, cats, and even one for a bird (I have to imagine that would be the hardest one to find and get back).

Sex and the City Still Reigns on Perry Street

The show ended eight years ago and they still crowd Perry Street every day, taking pictures of Carrie’s apartment. Oh wow, check out red shirt guy’s hair.

Is anyone watching Newsroom? In the first episode, the main character reacts to a bunch of people saying America is the greatest country on earth. He says:

“We’re seventh in literacy, 27th in math, 22nd in science, 49th in life expectancy, 178th in infant mortality, third in median household income, number four in labor force, and number four in exports.”

I was wondering which to address first and it’s almost impossible to decide. You need to be literate to improve in math and science, which would lift the last three, but more than anything else, you need to be alive to do any of those things.

What kind of tree is this?

Thank you in advance, people who have more than passing knowledge of nature. Based on googling I think it’s a honey locust.

Litter Kills! Please Throw Away Your Trash Properly!

From the New York City Pigeon Rescue Central website:

“Have you ever seen a pigeon that has missing toes, a foot or even a missing leg? The chances are that the digits and/or foot were lost from string being wrapped around them.

“I can’t think of anything more horrible than that happening to a bird. Imagine tying a rubber band around your finger as tightly as you can. You know what kind of pain there will be. You can take off the rubber band. The pigeon cannot take off the string. They can’t walk up to anyone and ask for help. They suffer great pain and it can take over a year before the pain goes away along with the toe(s) or foot or leg.”

Sadly, sometimes the string gets caught in trees and the bird hangs until they die. This poor bird got caught in string on a lamppost. Please people, for the love of god, throw away your trash properly.

Prospect Cemetery, Queens, NY

The picture below is of Prospect Cemetery in Jamaica, Queens. It’s not the greatest shot because I took it from a moving train in the rain. The cemetery is actually a lot prettier than this. I wrote about Prospect Cemetery in Waiting For My Cats to Die. The cemetery had been abandoned and forgotten for decades until …

“A local animal rights activist named Amy Anderson found it again in 1988 while rescuing an abandoned litter of puppies. It was already so overgrown with weeds and wildflowers that she didn’t even know at first she was even in a cemetery. Amy wrote down some of the names on the gravestones, picked up a phonebook, and starting calling people with the same last names at random. This led to Cate Ludlam, who may or may not be a descendant of someone buried there — she’s never actually checked — and now Cate pulls the weeds for dead people no one thinks about except people like me. I’ve been passing Prospect Cemetery on the Long Island Railroad for decades. I couldn’t see the graves until the Cate started weeding roughly ten years ago. Once I could, whenever my train went by it I’d daydream that Prospect Cemetery was my “Willoughby” and I always swore I’d get off someday and go there …

Not long after I do. I meet Cate who …

” … takes me into the Chapel of the Sisters which stands just inside the main gate. Built from fieldstone, sandstone, and black walnut in 1857 by her possible ancestor, Nicholas Ludlum, for his three dead daughters, Mary Cecelia, Cornelia Maria, and Mary, it hasn’t been used since 1936. The chapel consists of a small room, but the ceilings are at least 30 feet high. I dodge swooping pigeons, who come in through holes in the roof and breaks in the stained glass, and notice that the word “incorruptible” still appears in embossed gold lettering on the now gray walls. I walk from wall to wall, avoiding spiderwebs and brushing away feathers that cover the floor to read the names and dates of birth and death of the sisters, who only lived to 1, 13, and 21 years old …

“I pick up a few sordid facts about Prospect’s past. In 1954, the skull of 14-year-old Alice Josephine Smith was taken from the grave she had been buried in 90 years before. Her skull is still missing to this day … The body of a three-year-old boy murdered by his mother was found during a brief cleanup in 1989.”

Cate is much further along now! The Chapel has been completely restored and there’s a Prospect Cemetery website with the complete history and a registry of the people buried there (over 1,000). I wish I could find my “before” pictures. The Chapel was completely dilapidated and in ruins, but the website has pictures of how it looks today.

Hello President Obama!

The president is in town. There were massive delays on the subways, traffic jams too, I’m sure. I took the picture below on my way to the library this morning. I asked a cop, “Is this for a parade?” “No, Obama.” “When is he going to come by?” “Between 4 and 10. They don’t tell us anything more than that.” “Okay, well, then I’ll wait right here.” (I didn’t really.)

Please Stop Making Climate Change a Political Issue

Storms Threaten Ozone Layer Over U.S., Study Says. From the article: “Strong summer thunderstorms that pump water high into the upper atmosphere pose a threat to the protective ozone layer over the United States, researchers said on Thursday, drawing one of the first links between climate change and ozone loss over populated areas.”

I was on the roof last night talking with some of my neighbors and we were saying how some of the storms lately have been downright scary. But they are beautiful and magnificent. So as we’re dying we’ll be going, “Wow, look at that!”