Category Archives: Scribbles

Pig hunts

ABC News seems to have discovered the Brush Country’s feral hogs, declaring them rampant in Texas.

"A million dangerous pigs are roaming Texas soil, challenging farmers and devouring their crops."

The million in the lede becomes millions in the sub head. Now that’s excitement, if innumerant.

Well, they’re pretty much confined to the South Texas brush, where hunting services like Brush Country Bowhunting charge no kill fees on hogs, or, for that matter deer, javelinas (a smaller feral hog cousin) "& other varmints." As in Missouri, where hogs also abound, hunting them requires no permit in Texas.

But the real problem, which is pretty much statewide, is white-tail deer, which not only eat crops, but wander suburban lawns eating ornamental plants. Hey, ABC, do an expose on the deer problem, which not only plagues Texas but even New Jersey, way up there in your own backyard.

No? Ugly hogs are expendable, but Bambi is too sweet? That’s why we have a deer problem.

Majesty in every countryside

I admit I paid no attention to loudmouth Dem Charles B. Rangel rapping my father’s home state of Mississippi. Rangel’s just a New York yankee, so what the hell would he know? But the Dem’s slur on the Magnolia state brought out some poetry in a political rival, Mississippi Rep Charles W. Pickering.

“From the coast to the Delta to the Pine Belt to the hills and across Mississippi,” he said, “there is beauty in every city, charity in every heart, love in every church, and majesty in every countryside.”

Couldn’t have said it better. 

Watch the Texas border

If you have IE as a browser, are willing to download and run some software, and register for free, you can join the Texas Virtual Neighborhood Border Watch and report suspicious activity to the state. Woo hoo!

What is this thing called Web?

Improve it or be sorry, says Web’s developer, Sir Tim Berners-Lee.

"He also said employers were now beginning to complain that there were not enough people who fully understood the web. ‘There aren’t any courses at the moment and it hasn’t really been brought together. We’re hearing complaints from companies when they need people that really understand the medium from both the technological and social side.’"

Happy Halloween

TheBat.jpg

It’s supposed to be a bat. Design had it hanging upside down, but Mr. B. convinced me to do it upright. So it’s a little droopy. Still, a fair approximation of what Pumpkin Master tools can do. 

21st century pumpkin carving

If you’re still carving your pumpkin(s) for Halloween tonight, or still contemplating the idea, get thee to a grocery or hardware store and buy a set of Pumpkin Masters tools and patterns. I gave up long ago on using a kitchen knife on the tough surface of a pumpkin for fear of stabbing myself. Pumpkin Masters tools aren’t very sharp but are serrated so they cut right through, and they’re small enough to allow tracing intricate designs. I’ll put our best ones here at Rancho Roly Poly up in pics later on tonight.

Roosevelt time

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Some places are spared tomorrow’s setting back of clocks one hour, according to Wikipedia, because they don’t do the daylight savings trick. Next year daylight savings time, which my grandfather derisively called "Roosevelt time" for its originator in America, FDR, will start earlier and end later. Happy extra hour of sleep.