The Birds Have Been Bought

 

The Orioles have new owners.

They're coming off a pretty miraculous regular season, then couldn't win a single game in the playoffs.

Change is good.  But they're still the Orioles until they make some substantial progress in the playoffs.

Interesting to watch at least.

Magnificent Mandu

 

Meet Mandu, AKA Mandurita, Little Hunter, Little Tiger, Princess Mandu.

A few nights ago I went to my back patio to lift up some furniture that had blown down during a pretty heavy wind / snow storm.  Mandu and her brother are indoor cats, so going outside for them is a big no-no.  So I closed the patio door behind me and picked the furniture up all in about 45 seconds.  As I returned to the door and tried to re-open it I realized it wouldn't budge.  This furball had managed to lean on the locking door handle and pushed it "down" into the lock position.

I was locked out.  In the snow.  With no shoes.

I managed to get back in after actually going to a very friendly neighbor and calling a locksmith.  In the end I managed to get back inside my house without the locksmith's help, but it was all a saga nonetheless.

Mandu has always been pretty well behaved compared to her brother Chingu, but lessons have been learned.

Cute kitties are dangerous.

For The Dogs

South Korea has banned the consumption of dog meat, and it's welcome news:

"Despite the horrors highlighted by campaigners, few politicians appeared willing to act. Consumption has been in decline for decades and is now largely confined to older South Koreans who want a fix of culinary nostalgia. But the industry is no financial minnow. There are about 1,150 farms, while 1,600 restaurants sell dog meat dishes, according to the agriculture ministry. Activists say as many as 1 million dogs a year are slaughtered."

No doubt an underground trade will remain, but it took South Korean activists to accomplish this locally and organically.

Good news!

"curled zinc sheets with their puddles of rainwater"

"There is a time of day immediately before dusk when the outlie of every object becomes sharply delineated.  It was just that moment.  The lacerated edges of wooden beams in the wreckage, the freshness of the rents in the shredded trees, and the curled zinc sheets with their puddles of rainwater -- everything appeared almost unpleasantly vivid.  In the extreme west only a horizontal line of scarlet was to be seen in the sky between two or three towering black burned-out buildings.  Flecks of scarlet were also visible through the windows of the ruined structures.  It was as if someone had turned on a red light in a deserted and uninhabited house."

Yuko Mishima, The Temple of Dawn

"Erasing every mark you make"

 

Fugazi, "Guilford Fall"

For no particular reason I listened to Fugazi's End Hits all the way through for the first time in about 20 years.  I remember being disappointed at the time with a few great songs, but also some experimental stuff that just didn't work for me.  I wouldn't say it's grown on me, but it holds together as an album better than it used to.  I can't tell if the band was running out of ideas or had too many of them.

So, a good album but I'm glad it was their second-to-last and not their last one.

Belated New Year!

Happy New Year to one and all!  This blog remains slower than it should, but things are warming up.  Days are getting longer.  Still no snow in Maryland, but fingers crossed.

I've been going to the movies a lot, obviously, and that's not the worst way to enjoy 2024 so far.