I'm beginnin' to think I'm gettin' too old and worn out to keep waitin' for nice girls... Like Pink Floyd in "The Wall," I think "I need a dirty woman!" But if most of that dirt's under her fingernails from gardening while listening to NPR, I'll be right happy, too! :) Oh, as for bluegrass, Dianne, LOVE instrumental bluegrass... not particularly fond of MOST vocal music in most any genre, with a few exceptions, such as Enya, Pink Floyd, Yes, early Kansas and some of Mellencamp's stuff... Aerosmith... quite a few, when you break it down, BUT not nearly so much as most folks, who seem to think a song ain't a song without a singer... and I don't wanna start a war here, but I didn't think so in the 60s and 70s, and I STILL don't think Fogerty could carry a tune in a bucket. He sounds like an out-of-tune SOMETHING being played by someone in GREAT pain to me... besides, he never lived anywhere CLOSE to a bayou... Want bayou songs, listen to Jerry Reed :) I want a good-quality DVD of the Francis Ford Coppolla/Philip Glass collaboration, "Koyaanisqatsi," which is like a 90-minute minimalist classical music/hopi Indian music video, very slow moving and rythmic at times, followed by some fast-paced movements and.... well, you'd just have to see it... Takes patience to watch it if you don't like this sort of thing. I rented it on videotape way back when it was new, in the mid-80s, but the sound and picture quality weren't up to the standards I'm pretty sure I'd see on a DVD... Some of it is breathtakingly scary, such as the one tranquil beach setting that suddenly turns to something altogether different. Of course I could listen to the Philip Glass soundtrack most any time... Have yet to hear the Glass I don't like and I consider him the most important "modern" classical composer of the second half of the 20th century -- at least that I've heard... He still does interviews and such on NPR sometimes, too... and seems like just a regular guy... still teaches, composes and conducts. There's so much out there so many people don't even know if they like or not, because they never get exposure to it... Hope some of y'all will click on the link to Philip Glass' website. Musically yours, Jeff Here is a link that might be useful: Philip Glass

Thomas Barret in Harnessing the Earthworm _____________________________________________ They are sometimes swallowed by birds and fail to digest and are then dropped in a new location, perhaps on a high mountain or on an island of the sea, or some other out-of-the-way place where it would have been impossible for a mature worm to find its way. _____________________________________________ Funny I just got to that part and when I had wrote it before it was more just intuition rather than gained from reading or experience. Something else that might fit into this thread well that has been gnawing at me a little is the remarks from Pete regarding the reduction of material on its way to becoming castings to the extent that maybe 10% is realized in the form of castings from a given amount of material. This has had me thinking and is somewhat confirmed in the above mentioned book though not really spelled out clearly, at least I have not gleaned it as of yet. My thoughts are that if we say an earthworm consumes its own weight in soil every day then the resultant excrement will much depend on how well the worm is able to reduce it on its fast path from one end to the other. A worm in rich material such as finely prepared scraps or manure would not need to consume as much material to get the nutrients it needs, eating dirt means very little nutrient so much more needs to be pass through the factory to support the same high standard of livin. So a fine dining worm can subsist with a lesser daily volume then one scraping along on inferior fare and would subsequently produce a smaller volume of castings where one that is choking down a large percentage of dirt is going to be passing more of that material and needing to run ever more through the mill to get the same nutritional value. Since a worm will homogenize mineral content from the soil along with the organic output the dirt part is a good thing as it adds these minerals to the litter in a water soluble form ready to be taken up by plant roots and they in turn bulk up the VC daily take (or I suppose that would be leave). Just some thoughts and not very organized at this point so take it all with a grain of salt or soil if your digestive tract can handle it.

Donna "being sent to the Tower" (of London) is luckily just an expression these days although way back when it was a Royal fortress those who had committed treason languished there and whiled away the time watching the scaffold being put up for a little light head-removal. Yoyo, Camilla has come through everything amazingly well. Goes out meeting and greeting, doesn't appear to have become 'grand' and gets on with the job, keeps her head down, stays well away from the press . . . and although Charles behaved very badly towards the late Diana, they do seem a genuine happy couple. I think the Queen has reigned for so long now and set such a good example of how to behave it will be difficult for anyone having to 'follow-on', but they (and we) will adapt . . .think of the hooha when Ed VIII abdicated . . . with time it all blew over. Annpan, I don't know about the Press being 'spiteful' towards MM. Certainly when she first 'arrived' they trod very respectfully around her and the 'colour' thing was never an issue with them or the public at large. I think it wasn't until she started complaining about her 'treatment' and how not enough people had asked how she was when pregnant etc and wouldn't play the game that they became less understanding especially when her LA 'friends' began to wade in. I think the general feeling is "OK, go your own way but don't expect the taxpayer to pick up the bill and stop insulting your new family."

The 2020-21 Winter Finch Forecast "It is also a year when red-breasted nuthatches are moving south in high numbers. Perhaps you’ve seen more of these small, charismatic birds than usual in your yard this fall already. I hadn’t seen or heard a red-breasted nuthatch in my yard for about four years. This fall, I’ve had three already. I’ve seen only one, and heard the other two. Red-breasted nuthatches have higher-pitched songs and calls than their cousins, the white-breasted nuthatch. It’s an unmistakable difference once you learn it. Red-breasted nuthatches are the more common nuthatch throughout much of New England, particularly up north. In southern New England, irruption years of red-breasted nuthatches are a special treat as they are not resident birds". Claire