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#51
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Speaking of Geese
"Kreisleriana" wrote in message ... On Sun, 09 Apr 2006 15:17:04 -0500, John F. Eldredge yodeled: On Sat, 08 Apr 2006 21:27:45 -0400, "Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote: In article , jmcquown wrote: Victor Martinez wrote: jmcquown wrote: 'watch geese'. Their honk was larger than their bite, although I won't say a goose bite doesn't hurt. But the premise was, the geese honking would When my godson was little, we were at the club and he wanted to go see the ducks in the pond. So I grabbed his hand and took him near the pond. We were looking at the ducks when a rather large goose saw us and made a beeline for us with very evil intentions. I grabbed my nephew and ran as fast as I could, with the goose in pursuit! Scary critters if you ask me, attacking someone much bigger than them. I guess they are territorial Ducks, on the other hand, don't seem to care too much. They just sort of quack and waddle away (or get in the water and paddle out a few feet). I hear swans are much like geese when it comes to being territorial (and mean). I understand the requirements have changed, but when I was taking the Boy Scout First Class test, one had to demonstrate marking trails, stalking, or classical tracking by footprints and the like. Marking trails seemed too simple, and tracking, unless you are following an elephant, tends to be a skill learned very young. So, I took the stalking option. How did I practice? Near my house was a city recreational area with a fairly large pond, which hosted a flock of ducks. I'd carefully crawl up on them, freezing whenever they looked at me, and go for the mark of a successful stalk. If I was sufficiently invisible and inaudible, I could goose a duck. I once goosed a squirrel, although it was more a matter of his noisiness and inattention, rather than my stealth. The squirrel was head-down in a park trash can, with only a couple of inches of tail showing, as he rummaged around, probably eating left-over lunch scraps. I tweaked his tail, then hastily retreated about 10 feet. The squirrel dashed up a nearby tree, then gave me a five-minute-or-so tongue-lashing for having offended his dignity. You're lucky you got away so easily. An irate squirrel jumped on my brother's head once when we were little. Squirrels have an anger management problem ;-) I was walking around the Botanical Gardens a couple of years ago, minding my own business just enjoying the plants and the tranquillity when I heard a strange scolding/barking sound coming from a big tree horse chestnut tree overhead. As I looked up to see what the commotion was, a rain of twigs and leaves came down on to my head. A grey squirrel was so angry with me that he was plucking off bits of the tree and flinging them down. I was very intrigued and stood and watched for a couple of minutes but the squirrel became almost beside itself with rage, more and more tree debris came down, so I took the hint and went down another path. I figured it might have babies nearby and I didn't want to upset it any more than it obviously was. Tweed |
#52
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Speaking of Geese
"Christina Websell" wrote in message ... Squirrels have an anger management problem ;-) I was walking around the Botanical Gardens a couple of years ago, minding my own business just enjoying the plants and the tranquillity when I heard a strange scolding/barking sound coming from a big tree horse chestnut tree overhead. As I looked up to see what the commotion was, a rain of twigs and leaves came down on to my head. A grey squirrel was so angry with me that he was plucking off bits of the tree and flinging them down. I was very intrigued and stood and watched for a couple of minutes but the squirrel became almost beside itself with rage, more and more tree debris came down, so I took the hint and went down another path. I figured it might have babies nearby and I didn't want to upset it any more than it obviously was. Tweed ROFL!!! Anger management problem! That describes it exactly. |
#53
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Speaking of Geese
Mishi wrote:
On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 20:03:31 -0400, "Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote: In article . net, Tanada wrote: John F. Eldredge wrote: If one's "resident editorial assistant" occasionally bites off the corner of a page, how should one interpret that action? I once read that Isaac Newton once completed the first draft of a book, only to have his dog tear up half of the one-and-only manuscript copy. Our first owner as a family, Diamond was named after Sir Isaac's d-thing. Supposedly Newton is supposed to have said "Oh Diamond, you know not what you have done." One of the fuzzies in H. Beam Piper's three book fuzzy series was named Diamond after he messed up an entire inter-galactic company's computer main frame. BTW Piper died in 1965 or so. Like Robert Heinlein he was ahead of his time. Pam S. Who considers Piper one of Science Fiction's hidden treasures Piper, who believed strongly in reincarnation, committed suicide. Indeed, he was superb. The Fuzzies are good, but I confess to a preference to the Lord Kalvan series, overlapping with Paratime. I love the Fuzzy series, but I haven't read the Lord Kalvan ones. I will have to see if I can find them one of these days. Piper's books are fetching an ungodly price nowadays! Patti Lord Calvin of Other when is an awesome book. It's the only Lord Calvin I've read. Are there more? For those who haven't read the Fuzzy series: Fuzes were little bipeds that looked somewhat like 2 foot tall Woks (Star Wars series) but they had small bare faces and huge golden or green eyes, sorta like a cat, cat like ears and well, I'll have to scan one of the book covers for you. Hang on... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tanadashoes/album I hope that works. I cut down a large part of it to get to the main album page. I made a two picture album with scans from Fuzzy story covers. I hope they are clear enough. The books have been well read and loved. Pam S. |
#54
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Speaking of Geese
Tanada wrote:
Mishi wrote: On Mon, 10 Apr 2006 20:03:31 -0400, "Howard C. Berkowitz" wrote: In article . net, Tanada wrote: John F. Eldredge wrote: If one's "resident editorial assistant" occasionally bites off the corner of a page, how should one interpret that action? I once read that Isaac Newton once completed the first draft of a book, only to have his dog tear up half of the one-and-only manuscript copy. Our first owner as a family, Diamond was named after Sir Isaac's d-thing. Supposedly Newton is supposed to have said "Oh Diamond, you know not what you have done." One of the fuzzies in H. Beam Piper's three book fuzzy series was named Diamond after he messed up an entire inter-galactic company's computer main frame. BTW Piper died in 1965 or so. Like Robert Heinlein he was ahead of his time. Pam S. Who considers Piper one of Science Fiction's hidden treasures Piper, who believed strongly in reincarnation, committed suicide. Indeed, he was superb. The Fuzzies are good, but I confess to a preference to the Lord Kalvan series, overlapping with Paratime. I love the Fuzzy series, but I haven't read the Lord Kalvan ones. I will have to see if I can find them one of these days. Piper's books are fetching an ungodly price nowadays! Patti Lord Calvin of Other when is an awesome book. It's the only Lord Calvin I've read. Are there more? For those who haven't read the Fuzzy series: Fuzes were little bipeds that looked somewhat like 2 foot tall Woks (Star Wars series) but they had small bare faces and huge golden or green eyes, sorta like a cat, cat like ears and well, I'll have to scan one of the book covers for you. Hang on... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tanadashoes/album I hope that works. I cut down a large part of it to get to the main album page. I made a two picture album with scans from Fuzzy story covers. I hope they are clear enough. The books have been well read and loved. Pam S. Rats, that didn't work. Sorry, I'll try again later on. Pam S. bummed |
#55
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Speaking of Geese
In article , Karen
wrote: "Christina Websell" wrote in message ... Squirrels have an anger management problem ;-) I was walking around the Botanical Gardens a couple of years ago, minding my own business just enjoying the plants and the tranquillity when I heard a strange scolding/barking sound coming from a big tree horse chestnut tree overhead. As I looked up to see what the commotion was, a rain of twigs and leaves came down on to my head. A grey squirrel was so angry with me that he was plucking off bits of the tree and flinging them down. I was very intrigued and stood and watched for a couple of minutes but the squirrel became almost beside itself with rage, more and more tree debris came down, so I took the hint and went down another path. I figured it might have babies nearby and I didn't want to upset it any more than it obviously was. Tweed ROFL!!! Anger management problem! That describes it exactly. Over the years, I have begun to overlook the cute tails and refer to them as tree-rats. I must confess that while I don't understand Squirrelish, I can mimic it well enough to be absolutely convinced I can convince a squirrel to return the most vile of insults. |
#56
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Speaking of Geese
In article et,
Tanada wrote: Lord Calvin of Other when is an awesome book. It's the only Lord Calvin I've read. Are there more? I'm trying to remember how the several stories and, IIRC, novels, were collected, as I originally read them in Analog magazine. I believe there were two or three books, Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, Styphon's Revenge, and a third that I don't remember. Again from memory, Piper was working on something in the series when he committed suicide. The Lord Kalvan books make slight mention of the Paratime Secret, which is the framework in which a Pennsylvania State Policeman is cast into an alternate reality. _Paratime_ is in my library, but there are others. It's a fascinating and systematic context, which could have been a wonderful framework for other writers. Essentially, it's an alternate probability branching universe, with five major timelines. On the First Level, civilization formed from a successful migration from Mars to Earth, with the society retaining all knowledge from an advanced society. Second Level is _almost_ at the same knowledge level, but there's one key branch. Third level was, IIRC, a partial failure but retained some of the Martian knowledge, and Fourth Level doesn't have any but had developed from civilized folk. In Fifth Level, the migration totally failed, and any human life developed autonomously in some branches. Our society is a Fifth Level branch. The key difference between First and Second Level is that the First Level people know the Paratime Secret: the technology to move between timelines. Generally without exploitation, the First Level people trade and study with lower-level civilizations. Once in a while, a Paratime Conveyor accidentally picks up a person and drops him into another timeline. In Lord Kalvan, the hero, a history major who became a state policeman, is transported into an alternate Fifth Level timeline where the Americas were populated completely across the Bering Strait land bridge, but Europeans also migrated across the longer-lasting Bridge. He drops into a skirmish in a timeline in which the technique of making gunpowder is known only to an evil priesthood. It's not quite the Paratime Secret, but his knowledge, which he does get a chance to exploit, is a major social effect. He's thoroughly familiar with the best of medieval tactics, and also builds an enlightened society. For those who haven't read the Fuzzy series: Fuzes were little bipeds that looked somewhat like 2 foot tall Woks (Star Wars series) but they had small bare faces and huge golden or green eyes, sorta like a cat, cat like ears and well, I'll have to scan one of the book covers for you. Hang on... http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tanadashoes/album I hope that works. I cut down a large part of it to get to the main album page. I made a two picture album with scans from Fuzzy story covers. I hope they are clear enough. The books have been well read and loved. Pam S. |
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