Neil Young marries Darryl Hannah

September 2, 2018 • 9:15 am

This isn’t a gossip column, but I’ve always been a huge Neil Young fan, and so I found it newsworthy that, according to many venues—including CBS News—Young and actor Daryl Hannah just got married (click on the screenshot to read):


An excerpt:

Daryl Hannah and Neil Young have reportedly tied the knot. The actress and the singer-songwriter, who have been dating since 2014, reportedly married on Friday in a top-secret ceremony near San Luis Obispo, California, according to Page Six.

Page Six reports that Young intentionally planned a time when the moon would be nearly full so he could serenade her with “Harvest Moon.” The couple reportedly had 100 guests, and the only celebrities on the list were Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills. Guests were reportedly asked to keep the nuptials under wraps and not let any local hotels know why they were there; they were also asked to keep their phones and cameras at their hotel, per Page Six.

In 2014, Hannah and Young teamed up for the environmentalist documentary, “Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands.” They also led a Keystone XL Pipeline protest in Washington, D.C., that year in April, before Young filed for divorce that July from Pegi, his wife of 36 years.

Of course Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills are another of my favorite folk/rock musicians.

Young, who’s 72 (how can that be?), was married twice before, and was also in a long-term relationship with actor Carrie Snodgress, the inspiration for “A Man Needs a Maid” (see below). Hannah, 57, has never been married before, but was in long-term relationships with John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Jackson Browne.

And that’s Sunday’s gossip. I wish them well; I can’t imagine it would be easy to be married to Neil Young. But they’ve been together four years, so they clearly made an informed decision.

To celebrate, here’s Young singing “A Man Needs a Maid” on his fabulous BBC live show in 1971.(Even though this was written about Carrie Snodgress, it’s appropriate given that Hannah was also an actress.) It’s to believe that this was taped 47 years ago! Young was just 26.

You could do worse than listen to the entire BBC concert, which is only a half hour, and here. It’s fabulous.  You might also listen to these two songs.

Sunday: Duck report

September 2, 2018 • 8:00 am

I’m tendering another duck report in lieu of readers’ wildlife photos, but be sure to send yours in—the tank is lowering.

As of yesterday evening, Honey and James Pond (who has a license to bill) were still cozied up at Botany Pond, eating and swimming together. I observed a bit of sniping yesterday, as James lunged a bit at Honey when they were both dabbling for corn. But they almost always dine together peacefully.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of when Honey left Botany Pond for the winter in 2017, but ducks really aren’t supposed to migrate south until the first freeze or snow, so they may stay around a bit longer this year. (I suspect they go to a staging area before flying in V formation—if they do migrate rather than staying around here.)  I just went downstairs to give breakfast to Honey and James, and there were no ducks in the pond. Now both of them tend to leave and then come back after a day, so this may be a temporary hiatus, but it would be interesting if Honey left the pond for good on September 1 two years in a row.

I continue to be impressed with the beauty of James. Here are a few shots of him. I suspect he’s a hybrid with a domestic duck given his gynormous size, his white coloration (see the flecks on his neck and indistinct white collar), and his gentle demeanor.

Look at those lovely colors: an iridescent green head, a blue-purple speculum, a lovely yellow bill, and bright orange feet. And I love the subtle brown hues on his feathers:

You lookin’ at me?

Look how neatly his feathers are arrayed. Here is left wing is folded over his right. A goldfish lurks below. . .

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Here’s my video of James grooming himself after lunch yesterday. He’s particularly adept at shaking his tail, an act I find ineffably cute.  Honey grooms on a nearby island; note that small flecks (down?) come out of her breast as she’s grooming it.

Honey and James are still foraging peacefully together interrupted only by competition from turtles and goldfish (yesterday James got quite startled when a turtle surfaced right under his belly). Do note the size difference; James is much larger even though he’s further away from the camera:

Lunchtime yesterday: the duckling pellet course. I still don’t know what those small yellowish-brown fish are; one reader suggested Gambusia (mosquitofish).  Here we see honey’s left wing crossed over her right—the reverse of the past few days. Clearly ducks can fold their wings both ways.

Honey grooming and flapping her wings:

 

My ducks are very clean!

Sunday: Hili dialogue

September 2, 2018 • 6:46 am

It’s Ceiling Cat’s Day, which means a day of napping and eating: September 2, 2018. It’s also National “Grits for Breakfast” Day, but why the scare quotes? Grits are an awesome and integral part of the American Southern breakfast, which ideally includes homemade biscuits with homemade peach preserves, country ham with red-eye gravy, fried eggs, grits (to mix with the smooshed eggs), and lots of strong coffee. It’s also National Blueberry Popsicle Day, another tribute to a quiescently frozen confection.

Recommended reading for today: Heather Hastie’s new post, “The NRA bait and switch,” a good indictment of American gun culture. I’ll reproduce one of her illustrations to show how ridiculously lame the NRA’s (and gun advocates’) defense of gun ownership is:

On this day in 44 BC, Pharaoh Cleopatra VII of Egypt (yes, that Cleopatra), named her son (Ptolemy XV Casarion) as co-ruler.  On September 2, 1666, the Great Fire of London began. Starting at a bakery on Pudding Lane, it destroyed, besides the original St. Paul’s Cathedral, the homes of about 70,000 of the city’s 80,000 residents.  On this day in 1752, Great Britain and some of its overseas colonies adopted the Gregorian Calendar, established by Pope Gregory in 1582, advancing the date from October 4 to October 15.  On September 2, 1901, President Teddy Roosevelt, speaking at the Minnesota State Fair, for crying out loud, said his famous phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.”

On this day in 1939, on the second day of World War II, Nazi German annexed the Free City of Danzig, an autonomous city-state (it’s now Gdánsk, Poland).  On September 2, 1946, the Interim Government of India was formed, with Jawaharlal Nehru having the power of a Prime Minister. On September 2, 1963, the first network news broadcast lasting a half hour took place on CBS. Previously all evening news was just 15 minutes long, but since that’s the only show I watch regularly, I’d prefer it to be an hour long, as it is on PBS. On this day in 1998, Swissair Flight 111 crashed near Peggy’s Cove in Nova Scotia, killing all 229 people aboard (I’ve been to the memorial site). Finally, five years ago today, the replacement span for the eastern portion of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge opened at 10:15 p.m. It cost $6.4 billion and was a replacement for the original span damaged in the 1989 earthquake.

Not many notables were born on this day, which means that not many people had sex in December (I guess it was too cold). Those born include Billy Preston (1946), Christa McAuliffe (1948), Keanu Reeves (1964), and Salma Hayek (1966).  Those who expired on September 2 include Henri Rousseau (1910), Alvin C. York (1964), J. R. R. Tolkien (1973), geneticist Barbara McClintock (1992, Nobel Laureate), Christiaan Barnard (2001), and Bob Denver (2005).

Here’s a lovely Rousseau called “The Tiger Cat“:

Meanwhile in Dobrzyn, Hili faces a dilemma (the snacks were sent from Japan by Hiroko):

A: Do you prefer Japanese treat or cream?
Hili: Both.
In Polish:
Ja: Co wolisz, japoński przysmak, czy śmietankę?
Hili: Jedno i drugie.

Tweets sent by Matthew. This first one reflect the words of a man who might very well be President of the U.S.—and sooner than we think.

Here’s a graph; go to the original tweet to see Brits and Eastern Europeans.  This reflects the national psyche, I suppose:

Matthew calls this a “sad tweet”, and I agree with him when he says, “He shouldn’t be in a zoo, but then I don’t give him much hope outside.”

Tweets from Grania. The first one is quite amazing.

https://twitter.com/kengarex/status/1035399931975090177

This could start a whole genre: renamed paintings.

Baby bears in a pool—what could be cuter?

Reader Nilou sent the first tweet, but now have a look at the responses:

Responses:

https://twitter.com/ArunDickshit/status/1034676077451337729

And this reminds me of the most bizarre name I’ve ever heard given the guy’s profession.  It’s the doctor below, who works in Northern Virginia. He’s real, and he was the gynecologist of a friend of mine. See here.

Why didn’t he at least go by “Harold”? And imagine the jibing he got!

A Jewish cowboy

September 1, 2018 • 2:52 pm

I photographed this years ago in the local museum in Independence, California. I know nothing about this guy, nor where “Hominy” is, except that this must have been the only Jewish cowboy in history. And he looks it—as if someone took a yeshiva bocher and put him in cowboy boots and a hat. (The photo is not a joke, by the way.)

This should have been in my book Jewish Sports Heroes that a friend gave me. And that book includes, as a sport, chess.

When I returned to the museum several years after I took this photo of a photo, it had disappeared. I was sad because I wanted to buy it.

Caturday felid trifecta: Cats wait for the mailman, cat versus seal, angry texting cat

September 1, 2018 • 9:45 am

I’m off to California this week, but I’ll try to keep the Caturday felids going while I’m gone. (As far as I know, I haven’t missed one in years.) In the meantime, here’s today’s trifecta, beginning with a series of video clips of cats dealing with the mailman (mailperson?). I like the ones in which the cats either accept or reject the mail going through the slot.

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Go to this link (click on screenshot) to see a cat pwning a seal:

 

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Here’s a cute video in which a cat and its staff text back and forth, with the cat reacting to the adoption of a new kitten:

h/t: Su, Heather Hastie

Live coverage of John McCain’s service in Washington (10 a.m. ET)

September 1, 2018 • 8:49 am

NBC News is livestreaming on YouTube the memorial service for John McCain at Washington National Cathedral. The cortege stopped at the Vietnam Memorial so Cindy McCain could lay a wreath—a poignant moment (go to 45 minutes in the feed).

You can see the service livestreamed below; the service starts in about 10 minutes, and features as speakers both George W. Bush and Barack Obama: a show of bipartisanship arranged by McCain himself before he died.

Say what you will about McCain—and I’ve had readers who say he should be demonized rather than eulogized—you have to hand it to him for explicitly refusing to invite Donald Trump to both of his memorial services. (Sarah Palin wasn’t invited either).

CNN reports this:

Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut and Meghan McCain, one of the late senator’s daughters, are also on the list of those slated to speak at Saturday’s memorial service.

Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, who delivered an emotional eulogy for McCain at a memorial service in Arizona on Thursday, will serve as a pallbearer on Saturday.

Actor Warren Beatty, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Democratic Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, former Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and former chief of staff to McCain Mark Salter will also serve as pallbearers, among others.

Here’s a screenshot of Barack and Michelle Obama before the service began. The ex-President looks very somber:

Watch the service here:

Readers’ wildlife photos

September 1, 2018 • 7:30 am

It’s time for me to make my sporadic plea for wildlife photos, as the tank is getting too low for my taste. If you have good ones, please send them my way.

From reader Barbara Wilson we have a bizarre fungus:

There was a dead man’s foot in the garden on campus yesterday.  So I photographed it. It is Pisolithus arhizus, a bascidiomycete, a fungus.  It produces bundles of spores in a black, gelatinous matrix that can be used for dyes, so it’s also called dyeball.  It breaks down to release a mass of brownish spores.  The non-fruiting part is a mass of underground, thread-like structures that are mycorrhizal symbionts of conifers and perhaps other plants.

 

From Reader William Benzon, who took these near Jersey City, New Jersey:

Here’s a wonderful fungus on one of the birch trees:  [JAC: this doesn’t look like an oyster mushroom; does anyone know the species?]

Here are some of your beloved ducks. The building in the background at the lower right is One World Center, aka, the Freedom Tower, during construction.

Reader Amy Edmonds sent a cicada that landed on her porch umbrella (I don’t know the species):