Iowa Cow Fights, Mooing, Auctions, and Landings

I am back from the family farm in Iowa. I'll let the video speak for itself:







And the bonus footage (I know, just because they have relented to let us use our electronic devices during takeoff and landing doesn't mean one should, but what else is there to do?):


The Midwest had a went summer and as a result everything is very green. This same approach during the drought of 2012 was very brown.


The long loop around Boston and over the harbor islands does tell a story you don't get from the ground.

Who Ratted Me Out to the Global Network?

I got the email below today. I was advised to keep it secret. I guess I won't be getting my $7 million download.

I am Barrister Tata Patrick, .I solicit for your kind attention to assist me download the sum of (USD$7Million) into your bank account. I got your contact through a Global Network and i decided to communicate with you in a good manner. I cannot operate it alone without using a Foreigner who will act as a partner to my late client and legitimate beneficiary to the fund due to my job and position. I was mandated by the bank to provide the next of kin to inherit the fund of my late client. I will advise you to keep this transaction secret to yourself alone. If you are interested to assist me urgently fill the below space with your information’s and return back to me.I guarantee that this will be executed under a legitimate arrangement that will protect both of us, as it is 100% risk free for both side. 1.YOUR FULLNEMES:............... 2.COUNTRY........... 3.SEX:............. 4.AGE:............. 5.OCCUPATION :................. 6.MOBILE TELEPHONE NUMBER:.............

Thanks. Barrister Tata Patrick.

And Now the Leaves Begin to Fall ...

.. in the driveway this morning. We got a hailstorm Tuesday, that explains the few maple leaves.

Get Off My Lawn, Cambridge-Style

I sympathize, but expecting the neighborhood dogs to read may be wishful thinking.



This sign on Hawthorne Street is just down the block from Longfellow Park, a very literary neighborhood, so maybe they can. There was a time in Massachusetts when a dog caught doing its business in public had to wear a scarlet #1 or #2.

The Great Hilliard Street Squirrel Massacre of 2015

Get a pro? I'd want the pro who got the 11 squirrels, though their lives rate higher in the poster's mind than "rats/racoons". I'll leave it to the reader to assess the implied value of life of "dogs/cats/kids".

And how do we know it was poison? Personally, I suspect some young Jem got himself a BB gun after watching To Kill a Mockingbird just down the street in Harvard Square last weekend.

This squirrel harvest does make you wonder what's on the menu at Darwin's, the sandwich shop at the end of the street:

"The Hilliard... Smoked Turkey Breast, Dill Harvarti, Dijon Mustard, Lettuce and Tomato $8.30."

The counter staff at Darwin's have been rude to me for 20 years, so I spit rhetorically in their food. Dijon mustard, it's Grey Squirrel Poupon.

To Kill a Mockingbird in Harvard Square

The movie To Kill a Mockingbird was shown Saturday Night in the Palmer Street alley between the Coop buildings. If you missed it, it will also be shown on Monday night under the sponsorship of the Harvard Square Bookstore at the Brattle Theater, after which the Coop and the Harvard Square Bookstore will fight at midnight for the right to sell you the newly published but musty Harper Lee novel, Go Set a Watchman.


Scout on the tire swing, which will later be rolled down the street with her inside it.


Scout and Atticus, still on his pedestal for a couple more days. In the new book, which features an adult Scout in the 1950s, Atticus is said to be portrayed as a racist segregationist. So Scout grows to not admire her father so much as she did as a kid.


The liberal with a rifle scene. Unlike the "shoot the rabid dog" scene in Old Yeller, you don't want to cry.


Doomed defendant with his lawyer. Atticus should never have put Tom Robinson on the witness stand. Yeah, right, the deputy was shooting to wound and missed his aim.


The Halloween Ham. I've always suspected Scout has a knife in there.


Boo Radley gets the credit for knifing Bob Ewell. But did he?

I read To Kill a Mockingbird at the Carnegie Library in my hometown when I was a kid. The book focuses on Scout, the movie focuses on Gregory Peck as Atticus. I think the new book, which Harper Lee actually wrote first, will put the focus back on Scout.

You Celebrate 1776 While We Celebrate 1775

And remember 1770 too.