Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Tale of the Snake (part 2)

The tale of the snake (part 2)

A few days after the appearance of the snake, My Man and I were sitting on the patio enjoying a drink in the summer evening air. I noticed something with strange markings poking out of the snake-hole, and asked MM to take a look, as his eyes are much better than mine.

He looked over the railing, and then asked me for a flashlight. As I was rummaging for it in the house, he said, “Bring the flashlight now!” I asked if the snake had stuck its head back out. He said, “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not a snake. Snakes don’t have claws like that.”

Claws? I got two flashlights so he could choose the better of the two. I had to get a look at this!

Sure enough, there were two (relatively) big pincher claws sticking out of the hole.

I called my brother, Mr. Wild Kingdom himself, for his expertise. Of course, he wasn’t home. So I called the next-best person…my dad. After a brief discussion of the claws, with me on the phone with Dad and MM with the flashlight trained on the critter, Dad and MM independently came to the conclusion that it was a crawdad. I hung up so that I could look at it, and sure enough, I saw one of the claws reach up and grab a gnat for dinner. I didn’t think my backyard was wet enough for a crawdad, but I guess it’s swampier than I thought.

I asked MM if we should keep it and raise it into a lobster, but he said that when he and his sister tried it, their crawdad didn’t live out the week.

Just then the phone rang, and Dad said, “Laurel, I’ve figured out what your man-eating monster is. It’s Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Those claws are just a disguise. He’s pretty slick.” Of course, I’d had a couple, but I laughed till tears rolled down my face.

MM and I poured water down the hole to try and chase him away, but I noticed a couple of days ago that he was back. He’s been back every night. So now I guess I have two pets: a cat named Jasmine and a crawdaddy named Saddam.

Monday, August 23, 2004

The New York Times > Washington > Image > Connections and Contradictions

Isn't it interesting to see the connections of the Swift Boat Veternas for "Justice?" Then again, why should I be surprised? The New York Times > Washington > Image > Connections and Contradictions

Friday, August 20, 2004

Wired News: Swap Your PC, or Your President

An interesting new campaign targeted at swing voters. I can't wait to see it! Wired News: Swap Your PC, or Your President

Thursday, August 19, 2004

The New York Times > Technology > Trying to Take Technology to the Masses

An interesting take on the Digital Divide issue. But my fear is that this will turn into another televison....heralded as a medium with great educational promise, but has turned into a vast wasteland of people eating bugs to win money. The New York Times > Technology > Trying to Take Technology to the Masses